Happy Meal
by Mad Maruri Tigerfox
Summary: He's cute and makes me laugh. Oh what do I do? He has my attention, but what should I do... We work well together and I enjoy his company, but I'm wary... because more than likely he's just temporary.
1. New Positions

"Think of it as a… new assigned position," said the man sitting behind the large desk.

"But sir we-"

"Jyabura! I have given my orders!" the man cut off, "It seems to me like it would be best for the three of you to spend some time out of government business…" The deep voiced man paused for a few moments. "_For a long period of time._"

The three men stood there side by side and had been patiently waiting for the man to get to them, and now that he had, they were now being… forcefully reassigned to a more "mellow" job as it were. Jyabura was completely offended by his superior's decision to send him along with these… these… two competitors of his, to put it politely. Lucci and Kaku though showed no signs of questioning the man's orders, although the both of them weren't exactly thrilled about the new occupation that they had been given.

"But is that island even worth sending us to?!" Jyabura pushed further, trying to make an excuse as to not needing to go and wanting some kind of reason as to why they needed to go in the first place.

The man's crystal blue eyes narrowed at the Inu Inu no Mi devil fruit user. He stood up slowly out of his large, leather seat and calmly set the palms of his hands on the surface of the desk. His breathing was deep, but not noticeable and his eyes never left the CP9 member.

"Jyabura," he began in a low tone, "Don't question me. That island is…" The man paused again and let his eyes roll around the room as he thought. They returned to the man quickly. "That island IS in fact, worth sending the three of you to. The island does not have many normal inhabitants as a population, but it does get a lot of… visitors."

Jyabura's jaw clenched in frustration and as did his fists. His mouth opened yet again to attempt to counter the broad shouldered man, but he was quickly stopped as Lucci's pale white fist collided with his right cheek.

"Shut your mouth while you're ahead, Jyabura," Lucci hissed in a low voice, "Unless you want to get yourself into more trouble."

Jyabura sat up slowly after skidding to a stop on the newly tiled floor and his teeth gritted against each other as he glared at the slim, black haired man standing up before him.

"You monster cat…" Jyabura growled as his form shifted slowly into a wolfish look.

Lucci's eyes snapped to the corners of his eyes and the pupils became slivers suddenly as he transformed as well, spots slowly surfacing on the yellow leopard fur that showed up. The two animalistic men, still trying to fully transform, started to approach each other with fire burning in their eyes and their arms raised with claws coming from the tips of their fingers.

"LUCCI! JYABURA!" screamed the man from behind the desk who slammed his fists down onto the wooden top, "Stop this bickering at once!"

The two of them halted in their assaults and turned to the man. Lucci nodded in acknowledgment of his command and he quickly reverted back to his original form. Jyabura growled in reply to his demand, but, reluctantly, did as well.

"You are going to that island! And that's final!"

They returned to their spots and stood there still as statues. Kaku smiled to himself, seeing that he was the only one who was not getting worked up at all, but his smile returned to nothing as the man spoke up yet again.

"You three are going, you understand?!" he spoke in a harsh tone, mostly to Jyabura which he knew that it was directed to him. The three nodded. "AND," he continued, "Your boat is out at the dock now." The man's arm extended and pointed to the door. "You are dismissed."

They all nodded. Well… except for Jyabura, who gave yet another growl as his reply and they all turned to the open door to leave.

"And boys…"

The three stopped and looked to him slowly. He smiled a pearly white, toothed smile.

"Have fun while you are there."

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

**_THIS IS TO THE READERS!!! IT'S ALWAYS TO THE READERS! :D  
_**

_Well... This is my something different. I have no idea who I want to go with yet... I'm kind of a fan-girl of two CP9 charaters, so I don't really know who yet... I guess it will just roll on, eh? Please review!! _

_-Love Maruri_

_**P.S.**_

_I feel that I need to warn readers about this, since a reviewer has brought my attention to it. I'm just wanting to warn you, readers. ( This note is also on my profile)  
_

_**NOTE ABOUT HOW I WRITE: I do tend to write from both third and first points of view in my stories. It helps me keep myself from becoming too... I guess... connected and used to one of them. I was in that mode where I only wanted to use third person once and I didn't like it one bit. And I also think it gives my readers a bit of a feel for each characters view of something or something along those lines. And also, there's the fact that certain things that seem better and easier to do in one point of view than the other. That's just how I do things. So, I'm just giving you a fair warning if you don't like that sort of thing or if it irritates you or something like that.**_

_Just thought I'd warn ya. ( I hope that I didn't sound mean or anything... )  
_


	2. Carpenter's Shipyard

The boat pulled up to the new port slowly and the three CP9 members stood at the metal railing watching the island slowly expand to the full length of the ship.

"So many people here…" said Kaku as he stared out beneath his black cap looking out around the large crowd that was standing about the dock, "Could they all be here to greet us…?"

"Dunno," answered Jyabura in a low, and rough tone as he gruffly stood there with his arms folded.

It wasn't the fact that he was going to this "unnecessary" island. It was the fact that he was with these two. He has never been on very good terms with Lucci or Kaku, but even though he has never been on good terms he had never been on the same TEAM as them. He had never spent too much time with either of them, but now… he had to LIVE with them!

"Jyabura…" Kaku groaned, "Get over it. Neither me nor Lucci are 'over joyed' about being on this island with you, of all people, either, but we're going to have to. Live with it."

"We don't have to," Lucci countered with a sly tone in his voice, "I could always kill him right here and now and we wouldn't even have to deal with him for the time we'll be here."

Jyabura scooted away from the more, to his utter disappointment, powerful CP9 in slight fear that he was serious which he was in fact.

"Well…" Kaku trailed leaning towards the idea, "That would make our lives easier…"

Jyabura's eyes widened and he was ready to call upon his abilities to help bail him out of the situation if anything started.

Kaku sighed as he assessed the out comes of both sides.

"No… Even though it would," he started, "the over all product would not be very beneficial to either of us, Lucci. It'd be best if we left him alive."

The hat wearing man smirked very slightly. Jyabura's body shivered at the sight of Lucci's sadistic smile and slowly and cautiously turned to the railing. The smiling faces of the inhabitants stared at the large boat as it came to a stop. Lucci, who returned to his normal emotionless demeanor, grunted slightly signaling for them to head down. Kaku stood up straight and followed Lucci down the stairs to the middle floor of the ship. Jyabura trailed behind as well, but stayed his distance from the two of them.

The door to the long, extended gang plank swung open for the three men and they advanced.

"It's the new employees," whispered a voice.

"Yeah. Do you think they'll be able to…"

"Look at how… dignified they…"

"Where do you think they're from…"

Kaku's eyes traveled around the crowd of gossiping people. So many different conversations were going on at once and they were all, amazingly, focused on the three of them. Lucci's attention was targeted dead ahead to a large shipyard and as his black shoed foot stepped onto the stone paved dock, the people parted in half for them. Jyabura was extremely amazed at how they all moved out of the way so quickly.

The men stopped at the large cement door of the shipyard and stared. Jyabura was very impressed at how… well… impressive this company was, but he didn't want to show much of it. Lucci's eyes narrowed slightly and he placed the palm of his hand flat on the stone. His muscles tensed as he pushed slightly and the stone slab started to move across the ground.

The shipyard was very large. Tall foundations built up everywhere and people hard at work on them. The skeletons of small fishing ships, houses, and an assortment of other things stood up on support beams with employees hammering, sawing, and nailing away at them. The loud banging sounds of hammers and the grinding sound of saws filled the islands air and men of various sizes were laboring.

"This place is incredible…" Jyabura trailed as he looked around.

"Not really," Kaku countered, crushing his observation quickly, "Galley-La was much more elaborate." The ball cap wearing young man looked around some more. "But I will say it's impressive that such an unknown island would actually have this many workers."

Jyabura's face sunk at his earlier comment and his eyes flashed in irritation.

"Stupid giraffe…" he muttered.

Kaku's face twitched and he snapped around to face him quickly. His eyes flared at the insult.

"Would you like to say that again?" he spat.

Jyabura stood up straight and pushed his face in towards Kaku's.

"Stupid! Giraffe!" he countered with just as much anger.

The Ushi Ushi user clenched his teeth, but Lucci interrupted.

"Kaku," came his deep voice, "Don't waste your time with such a worthless opponent. You did say killing him would be of no benefit."

Kaku looked to Lucci as he spoke and nodded his head.

"True," he replied and went back into a calm demeanor as he turned around.

Jyabura's face was awe struck as he stared blankly in reply to Lucci's insult about him. He started for him, but Lucci shoved the door to the main office open before he could do anything.

A man from the front counter looked up from the papers he was reading and smiled at the three of them.

"Ah!" came his baritone voice, "You have finally arrived!"

Lucci nodded while the man stood up from behind the desk as they approached.

The man was fairly young looking. His red, yellow, and orange, tinted and striped hair stood on end, practically defying the laws of gravity. His muscles were bulging from his arms and chest. The shirt he had on had been patched up so much that it was pretty much made of rags and his baggy pants were no different. His yellow eyes sparkled as he stared at them and he wore a wide smile.

"Yes," said the pigeon on Lucci's shoulder, "We have."

"Hahaha!" the large man laughed, "Good. Good. Well, allow me to introduce myself!" His arm extended upwards and was placed on his upper chest. "The name's Ratchet."

Lucci, Kaku, and Jyabura nodded.

"I'm Jyabura," Jyabura said.

"Kaku," replied the capped young man.

"And this," said the white pigeon while motioning to Lucci, "is Rob Lucci. And I am Hattori."

"Ahaha!!" he laughed again, "Well then… Lemme see something…" Ratchet looked back to the papers he was reading and stared at them. "Hmm…" He plopped back down into his chair and flipped through the files quickly. "Mmm hmm… Hahaha. Seems that you," he said and pointed at Kaku while still looking at the papers, "will probably be working with her the most. Seeing that you do house calls."

Kaku's eyebrow cocked as he looked at him.

"Her," he said in a questioning voice, "Who's her?"

"Oh!" Ratchet yelped slightly as he realized that he hadn't informed them about that, "You twos…" He pointed to Lucci and Kaku. "New best friend."

Lucci stood there with an emotionless face as usual, but Kaku's distorted slightly.

"Who are you…"

"MANAMI!" Ratchet screamed, "Get down here and introduce yourself!!"

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!_**

_-sigh- So incredibly happy!! I have someone who likes this story!! Well, I'm workin' on it along with my other. I will be posting as much as I can. Keep reviewing everyone!! It really helps me keep going!_

_-Love Maruri_


	3. Maybe

"MANAMI!" the bulky man screamed, "Get down here and introduce yourself!"

"I'm a little busy!" screamed a feminine voice from inside an open room on the second floor.

"Well you can take a break!" Ratchet screamed again.

Then there was silence, but it didn't last very long seeing that an aluminum can came soaring out of the open door, over the wooden railing, and slamming down onto Ratchet's skull with red paint slowly pouring out from it. My face got a slightly surprised look on it as I watched him remove the unwanted paint can from his head and look up to the open room.

"MANA!!" he scolded.

"What?!" came the feminine voice again as she stomped out from the room.

I tipped my cap up slightly and my eyes opened up more as she revealed herself to us.

Her wavy, grayish toned brown hair was put up in a messy pony tail and her red tinted eyes were narrowed at Ratchet. She was slim, but built. Her tan, loose fitting, sleeveless shirt and baggy shorts were covered in paint. And many colors of paint for that fact. Not only were her clothes covered in it, her, herself was as well.

Ratchet stared at her.

"What the heck happened to you?" he asked.

Her eyes narrowed more at him and her lip puckered slightly.

"You know damn well what happened to me!" she answered, "I've been painting non-stop." Her paint splattered hands gripped the round railing in front of her, paint coming off of her hands and coating it. "I'm more colorful than a freakin' rainbow!"

Ratchet snickered at her comparison and I couldn't help, but smile at it as well. Her eyes narrowed even more, if that was even possible, and she released a rough sigh. My mouth opened to warn her to not do what she was about to, but I was a bit too late.

Her hand that was covered in pastel green and neon orange paint went straight to the stray bunches of hair hanging out of the pony tail and pushed them back and out of her face and she realized what she was doing and what she had done much to late as well. Her expression soured and her other hand attempted to bunch up into a fist, but it was still holding on to the railing.

"Mother of God!" she hissed as she brought her hand back down, "Heaven knows how many times I've done that already…"

My eyes fell downward and the amused smile I had before returned. My shoulders shook slightly as I did my best to hold in a small chuckle with my hand. I think she took notice of it.

"Oh hush up you!" she demanded to me as she walked down the spiraling stairs with a stomp.

I stood up straight, forcing all signs of my recent amusement away, and my gaze focused solely on her. Now that she had come down I was able to see her profile much more clearly.

She was built, that was for sure, but I will admit that it was an attractive build. Not so built that you could clearly see the muscles she had, but they were subtly defined. The way she looked at this moment gave her a rough and tumble edge. Her eyes were dark, yet bright, if that makes any sense at all, and her face, amazingly seemed friendly.

"What is it, Ratch?" she asked as her hands went to her hips.

Ratchet's entire arm directed her attention to the three of us standing here. Her eyes traveled the length of his arm and connected with each of ours at least once. She blinked cluelessly at us for a few seconds and then her face straightened out.

"Ah!" she squealed, "You guys are the… um…" Her face went to the surface of the desk and one of her hands fell from her side. "Don't tell me…" She looked back up and stared at each of us as she snapped her fingers lightly. "The CP9 assassins! Yeah. You two," she pointed to Lucci and me, "are the ones who worked at Galley-La on Water 7 for five years."

Lucci nodded.

"Yes we are," Hattori cooed.

I watched in amusement yet again as the young lady's face scrunched up and she leaped over the counter, leaving a metallic sliver and light pink hand print on it as she did. She landed in front of Lucci and looked up at him. His eyes went down and connected with hers. Her eye brow cocked up slightly.

"You strike me as the kind of guy who can talk for himself," she stated suddenly.

Lucci's face stayed the same and he stayed silent. The girl stepped back from him slightly and Jyabura laughed.

"You scared of him, little girl?" he asked as his arm went across his abdomen.

Her red tinted eyes moved calmly over to him and her body was soon to follow. She strode over to Jyabura and stopped in front of him as he gained control of his laughter to look at her.

I smiled inwardly. To me, she wasn't too easy to read, but that would most likely change though, and what was funny was the fact that Jyabura didn't see that.

Lucci and I waited for her next move.

Her knees bent forward slightly and she sprung upwards just enough to where she could see eye to eye with him. The backs of her hands, somewhat, harshly hit the opposite cheeks, leaving bi-colored paint streaks on them and she swiftly moved her hands horizontally across his face.

"Not afraid," she said after she landed back on her feet, "Nor scared. Intimidated, yes, but not afraid." Her eyes stayed connected with his. "Don't be so cocky, wolfie boy."

I smiled a very small smile and I saw Lucci's lips twitch at the corners in a smile as well. This girl was very interesting and as it seemed both Lucci and I thought that.

"Hahahaha!" Ratchet laughed loudly as his coworker leaned on the edge of the desk, "Manami! How about you at least introduce yourself?"

She nodded.

"No need to introduce yourselves," she said to us, "I've already educated myself about you three." Her right arm came up and the thumb pointed itself at her. "I'm Manami, but please call me Mana."

I nodded to her, Lucci did the same, but it was very slight, and Jyabura did nothing except turn his head in a silent scoff.

Ratchet laughed at his reaction and his hand went to Manami's shoulder.

"How 'bout you go show those two," he said referring to Lucci and me, "to the room?"

She nodded to him once again and stood up straight.

"Follow me then."

She started back to the stairs and Ratchet motioned happily for us to follow her. Jyabura stood there, apparently wondering where he was supposed to go.

"Don't worry," said Ratchet, "Since you've never worked in any kind of crafting field, you're considered a trainee and that means you're workin' with me!"

As Manami, Lucci, and I were at the top, Manami laughed.

"Be nice with 'im Ratch. This will be his first time!"

As Ratchet laughed, we walked along one of the hallways one behind the other. The hall was lit brightly and it was astounding that there were that many rooms up here, but we soon stopped. The painted girl reached out and gripped the handle of the door to her right.

"Maybe I should just go out and have the boys just hose me down or something…" she mumbled after she opened the door and entered.

We walked in after her and looked around at our new domain.

The room had four dark white walls, a stained dark wood dresser which was very large, a tall book shelf situated in the back left hand corner, a simple brown, rectangular rug, and pair of what looked like bunk beds.

"What are the bunk beds for?" I asked as I watched her walk over to the large dresser and open up a drawer.

"Us," she replied as she pulled out another sleeveless shirt.

"But there's four," hooted Hattori while Lucci stared at her as well.

She bent down to a lower drawer and tugged that one out slightly.

"Actually…" she began, in a correcting tone, "Only three of them are able to be used. Those two there." She pointed to the pair of beds near the book shelf while she pulled out some regular looking jeans. "And that one." Her arms then switched and her left pointed to the top bed of the other that was right next to it. "Call which ever one of the two that are free."

I looked around at the beds and saw that the top one of the pair of beds that were able to be used already had bedding on it and as it seemed, Lucci had already taken the bed below it. I sighed inwardly, not letting any of my disappointment show and I walked over to the other couple of beds and climbed up onto the top. As the door leading into the bathroom that was connected to this room shut I rolled over onto the bed and gazed down at Lucci who was sitting on the edge of his.

"She's a bit odd, isn't she?" I said to him as I pushed my cap up.

"Slightly," he said back while still staring at the wall.

I sighed, seeing that he wasn't going to be too much of a conversationalist right now at this time and I rolled back over onto my back. The lip of my cap leaned forward and shadowed the top part of my eyes as I looked upon the ceiling. A small smile crept up onto my face.

'Maybe…' I thought to myself, 'Just maybe… I might like it here…'

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_I'm really loving this!! My love for these two CP9 characters is just so great that I can't even decide between the two of them!! AH!!! But oh well... I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this one. I decided to go from Kaku's point of view for this one 'cause I thought that it seemed to fit. I hope it's enjoyable so far! Please keep reviewing!!_

_-Love Maruri_


	4. Nice Suits

"Oh my god…" said Manami from inside of the bathroom, "My hair better not be died this…"

Lucci looked to the door as the handle twisted. Manami walked out with an irritated expression as she carried her paint splattered clothes close. Her new attire wasn't much different from before.

Her clean, blue embroidered shirt was still baggy on her and sagged near the bottom where it was tucked into her jeans which had a vertical rip going up her right thigh. Luckily there was a patch that had been noticeably sewn on under the monstrous tear. Her grayish brown hair was dark from being soaked and it fell around her in a wet, wavy mess.

"How many times had I done that…" she muttered to herself while Lucci watched her silently. Her eyes moved to the corners and she gave a slightly suspicious look. "Yes? How can I help you?"

Lucci just stared, but broke the gaze once he quickly went to look at Kaku who had shifted in his bunk suddenly, seemingly taking a nap. Manami looked at him as well and then sighed. She walked over to a wide straw basket and dropped her clothing into it. As she turned back around she examined both of the CP9's outfits. Her face scrunched.

"I'm going to have to take you two into town for some less formal clothing…" she mumbled quietly.

The Neko Neko user locked eyes with her yet again. Manami's muscles tightened, but she relaxed as she saw that his look wasn't threatening.

"Why won't you speak to me?" she asked the top hat wearing man.

His expression shifted just slightly as she finished her question. He adjusted himself on the edge of the bed to where only below his knees was hanging off and he removed his black hat from his head.

"Why do you care if I do or not?" he, himself, asked back, answering her question with another question.

"Well because… I mean…" She tripped over her words as she tried to think up a reason. "I ju- HOLD UP NOW!" Manami's arm snapped up and pointed at him. "You just talked!"

He rolled his eyes subtly in reply to her obvious observation.

"Yes. I did."

Manami leaned back on the heels of her feet as she stared, her eyes glittering in awe. Lucci's eye brow cocked upwards at her blank, awe-struck expression.

"What is it?" he asked her in a light irritated tone.

She blinked trying to find the right word to say without completely embarrassing herself.

"Your voice is so…" Her limbs tightened as she held herself back from saying the word she wanted to.

"Yes?" he pushed, his pupils narrowing in annoyance.

Her cheeks heated up as his stare became more intense.

She shook her head rapidly in an attempt to rid herself of the word she was thinking of. Lucci's eyes turned to slivers impatiently and he stood up suddenly. As he walked over to her, her body tensed again.

"Answer me," he demanded as he bent down to her level.

"Um… well… I was just going to say that your voice is… uh…" She mumbled the word and slurred the syllables as to not let him hear her.

Lucci fist clenched in frustration, since he never has liked it when someone stalled like this with him. His hand went straight to her neck and threatened to dig his nails into the pulsing vein that was now pumping blood ferociously in nervousness.

"Cool sounding!" she exclaimed, shutting her eyes and giving in to the very intimidating man in front of her, "There! I said it!" Her eyes snapped open and even though she tried to hold it back, a smile showed up on her face and a blush surfaced over her cheeks and nose. "There. Happy now that you've made me tell you what I thought?"

His hand went back to his side and he slowly returned to the bedside. As he sat, Hattori flew to the dresser behind Manami. Lucci's eyes just stared at her in suspicion, but he didn't feel like questioning her.

Her body loosened incredibly and her torso slumped over noticeably.

"Well…" she trailed while blinking at him, trying to gain control over her breathing and her face's heat, "I guess we're gonna have to find sumthin' for us to do until dinner…"

She was extremely relieved that she was able to hold back the real word she was thinking of and very thankful that he hadn't caught it when she first said it. Her eyes then traveled to Kaku, who shifted again and a small smile crept up on her face as he rolled over onto his right shoulder.

'I never thought I'd ever say this about an assassin, but… he's really cute when he's asleep…' she thought to herself as he groaned quietly.

She walked over to the bed and stood up on the edge of the broken bunk. Her finger lightly pushed on his shoulder.

"Oi… Assassin," she sung, "Time to wake up."

Kaku moaned and shifted again in his bed with his face distorting slightly at her attempt to wake him from his wonderful nap. She smiled wider and laughed lightly at his reaction to her.

"Well… ain't this funny," she said as she took back her finger and laid her arms one on top of the other and set her chin upon them, "You haven't even done any work and you're already tired."

His right eye opened slightly and his vision started to straighten itself out. All he could see at this point was a feminine blur at his bedside.

"What do you want…?" he growled as both of his eyes opened slowly.

"I need to go find some kind of entertainment that isn't painting, and I'm thinking that it would be good if you two come with to meet some of your new… nakama."

The cap wearing young man's eyes opened fully and he sat up, his muscles reluctantly stretching to wake up. Manami smiled more as he sat up in defeat and sprung off of the broken edge of the lower bunk. She walked over to the door and gripped the handle and as she did she looked back at the two of them.

She smiled sweetly.

"Change into something a bit less… government looking and more relaxed, I guess," she told them, "I don't think you want to dirty such nice suits."

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_Well... I just couldn't help myself (to my editor)... I had to post!! Hopefully she'll be able to edit it even though it's been posted... I hope you're enjoying it so far 'cause I know I am! I've just been in love with Lucci and Kaku lately, so yeah... Please review!! It helps encourage me to keep going!!_

_-Love Maruri_


	5. First Job

She walked around the shipyard alone, looking for something or someone to keep herself occupied while she waited on her two "new best friends" as Ratchet called them. Her red eyes traveled along the many men who were working hard on their projects.

"OOOOOOOI!! MANA!!" screamed a voice from up above her.

Her head leaned back and she stared up at a thin man, whose clothes seemed much too tight to be wearing while working on a fishing boat, and his blue striped, blonde hair fell about his face with his long bangs falling in front of his eyes.

"What is it?!" she yelled back at him with a bit of frustration in her voice.

"Where are your new boyfriends?" he asked her with a gigantic smirk on his face.

Manami's face distorted and a bright blush painted over her cheeks in anger and embarrassment.

"You shut up, Jeffrey!" she replied angrily, "They are not my bo-"

"What are you yelling about?" came a high pitched coo from behind her.

She spun around to see Lucci and Kaku standing beside each other in completely different clothing.

And they were both in the clothing that they had been wearing at Galley-La, but she didn't know that. Lucci was wearing his sleeveless white shirt and brown trousers with the suspenders hooked and over his shoulders, and the white and brown shoes he had worn at the Water-7 shipyard. Kaku was in his violet and orange top with the over sized turtle neck, dark sea blue-green pants, and his scuffed white shoes, but his hat was the one he was wearing just a few seconds ago.

Manami set her hands on her hips as she examined their outfits and her eyes stopped as she got to Lucci's shoes.

"What's wrong…" Kaku had to pause for a few seconds as he recalled her name, "Mana?"

She blinked a few times as she stared.

"I love those shoes," she stated bluntly her eyes glazing over with awe.

Kaku snickered at her girl like statement. Manami's face snapped up and she laughed hesitantly.

"Sorry 'bout that…" she apologized as she started to turn around, "The girl in me surfaced just a bit too much there."

Lucci advanced behind her as did Kaku, and they watched their distance not wanting their "dominant" personalities to be exposed too much.

"So where are we going?" Kaku asked as they were quickly approaching a building that had a sign that said "Training Grounds".

"We're gonna see if Ratchet might have anything to keep the three of us busy until it's time for me to help make something for dinner," Manami replied before she quickly trotted over to the wooden, barn door, "'EY!! Ratch!"

The barn door opened slowly as the tri-colored haired man showed himself. There was suddenly a loud slam followed by a screamed curse word and Ratchet smiled wide in utter amusement.

"Don't you worry!" he said as he looked over his shoulder slightly with a laugh, "You'll get the hang of it sooner or later!" Ratchet's attention went back to Manami in front of him. "So, what is it you need Mana?"

"We," she started as she motioned to her, Lucci, and Kaku, "need somethin' to do to keep us entertained while we wait for dinner."

"Ah! Well Mana!" Ratchet said with a voice filled with happiness, "Seems you're in luck. You and Kaku here get to go and make your first house inspection together for Doe."

Manami's jaw dropped.

"All the way on the other side of the island?! Are you serious?!"

"Yep," Ratchet nodded.

"But that could take four hours to just get there!" she whined.

"Well hey. I know you'll find some way. And as for Lucci here… I think the men working on the fishing boat could use an extra hand seeing as though they have to have it done by five this evening."

Lucci nodded and headed back over to the fishing ship that they had passed before. Ratchet smiled wide as he shut the door to the Training Grounds.

"Have fun, Mana."

Her sparkling red eyes narrowed at the now shut door and she hissed as the sound of the door locking reached her ears.

"HOW THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET THERE AND BACK BEFORE DINNER TIME?!" she screamed in utter frustration.

Kaku smiled at her and approached her back side. He set his hand on her shoulder and twisted her around quickly, swiftly hiking her up onto his back and instinctively, her arms went right around his neck and her feet crossed over the other in front of his abs and all four limbs tightened around him. His smile widened at her surprised reaction.

"W-What are you doing?" she said in a shaky voice while he put himself into a ready position.

"We're going to get to our first job," he replied.

She sucked in a breath to ask another question, but she didn't even have the chance as her chin went right into his collar bone once he took off in a mad dash. As he leaped into the air Manami squealed inwardly.

"Now I'm really gonna hate heights!!" she said in a quiet scream.

Kaku laughed once he hit the rooftop of a house.

"Don't worry," he said to her trying to reassure her and get her to stop tightening her grip on him, "I won't let you fall."

She squeaked as she tightened her grip just slightly. He laughed again and kept laughing each time he stepped upon a rooftop since every time he did she winced and whimpered

"I promise. I won't let you fall…" he muttered in a low voice to her.

"Well even so!" she said back, not catching the caring sound in his voice, "I've never been fond of heights!!"

He slowed his pace down quite a bit and casually hopped from one top to the other with her still hanging onto him. She was trying to get a hold of her composure as he jumped around.

"Well…" she said with pants every once in a while, "I guess… they don't call… you the… mountain wind for nothing…"

He smiled at her compliment and he suddenly became curious as to how she knew that people had and have called him that.

"Mana…" he said as he kept jumping, "How do you know so much about us just right off the bat?"

"I've read up on you guys," she replied. Suddenly her fingers dug into his top slightly as she looked down at the streets below. She felt like a cat in a tree, but she did her best not to cause her partner harm. "I mean… Come on. Our shipyard has a rep to uphold, dude and it's amazing that if I don't like the people that Ratchet gets applications from, he won't hire."

Kaku's head turned to her slightly.

"Are you saying that you liked us?"

"Well… What I'm saying is- AHHHH!!"

The young man noticed his miss calculation of the distance between the two houses and the two of them plunged to the ground. The young girl clung onto him for dear life and he just laughed. Kaku twisted in the air and landed on an awning in front of a fruit store.

"Excuse us miss," he said to her.

The woman smiled to him.

"Oh it's no problem, dearie," she said back, "You just be careful with her. She's extremely fragile."

Kaku nodded and smiled sweetly to her.

"Will do, ma'am. Please have a nice day."

His legs bent down and he sprung upwards to the roof he had been aiming for at first. He landed on it easily and looked at the poor girl who was clinging to his torso. He laughed very lightly, seeing as though her arms were clasped around his neck.

"Ma… ana…" he wheezed with amusement in his voice, "Would… y… ooou mind loosening your grip?"

Manami's eyes opened and she realized that she was starting to crush Kaku's wind pipe. Her gripped opened up and Kaku took in a quick breath of oxygen as she did.

"Would you mind continuing what you were saying?" he asked, as if nothing had just happened.

Manami's eyes blinked in amazement at this man and she sighed in defeat. She had finally accepted that these two men were different, but she had also realized that she loved that fact. The fact they weren't like any other man there at the shipyard.

"Well… What I was saying was that I liked you and Lucci. You two had a certain quality about you that said you'd be good for our company." All of her limbs finally relaxed in Kaku's hold and he smiled noticing that she trusted him with herself. "Now Jyabura… He was okay… I wasn't too excited about him, but when it said that he'd HAVE to come with you, well… I set aside what I really felt and said 'Let's do it!'"

"You do know what we are, don't you?" he asked, now leaping, but a very casual leap, across a huge gap with a busy intersection below.

Manami nodded to him.

"Yeah. You're an Ushi Ushi no Mi user. Lucci's a Neko Neko no Mi user. And Jyabura is an Inu Inu no Mi user."

Kaku confirmed that she was right about their devil fruits.

"And how did you figure all of that out?" he asked, craving more information.

"Your superior gladly gave it to me when I requested more info," she admitted, "I'm not one who just wants a simple application for a job. Nuh-uh. I want background information as well." She paused for a few seconds and then smiled sweetly. "Or at least, just enough for me to see if I like you or not."

The capped boy looked over his shoulder to her and his eyes had a glint of curiosity.

"And?" he pushed.

She smiled wide to him and a small, and to her fortune, not noticeable blush came over her cheeks and nose.

"I do so far!"

**_

* * *

_****_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_Ooooo!! How much fun I'm having! I find this to be very cute for some odd reason!! I'm thinking about MAYBE trying to do a chapter from Lucci's point of view, but I find that it might be a bit difficult to do... But I guess I'll just try it out and see. Please keep reviewing!! It really helps to keep me going!!_

_-Love Maruri_


	6. Twenty Minutes

"Holy crap…" Manami mumbled as we came to a slow stop in front of a small cottage, "You're freakin' fast!"

I smiled and set her down onto her feet gently.

"Ah!"

I lunged after her as she stumbled backwards; apparently not ready to have to balance on level ground. I laughed as she clung onto me once again, afraid that she was going to fall, and held me close to her. Her breathing was slightly frantic as she blushed madly and pushed me away from her lightly. She stood up straight and looked at me with a bit of unbalance and dizziness while she stood there.

"Well?" I said as she did, "You're the one who knows the customer, right?"

Her head shook and she walked up to the door reluctantly. I smiled very small and followed close behind her.

"Are we going to have to do that again?" she asked while she knocked on the hollow sounding door.

I nodded.

"Yes. We are, seeing as though we got her in only twenty minutes when it normally takes four hours."

Her head hung and she released a heavy sigh in reply.

As the door opened, she suddenly stood up straight as a post and smiled wide at the elderly man who opened the door.

"Afternoon, Don," she said with a sweet, respectful tone.

"Eh… Nice to see you too, Manami," the old man said. His eyes traveled up to me, which was far above the brim of his spectacles. "And who's he? Your boyfriend?"

A light blush appeared over my cheeks and an amused grin started to creep up onto my face as Manami growled quietly. I could tell that there was an embarrassed tint of red covering her cheeks as well.

"No!!!" she whined while stomping her foot on the ground lightly, "He's just my partner! God…"

His hazy eyes then traveled back to her.

"Partner for what?" he asked with a suggestive tone.

She moaned and stomped her foot again like a small child in a temper tantrum. I chuckled and moved my palm over my mouth, so I wouldn't irritate her further.

"Where's Doe?" she asked somewhat harshly with the look of death playing from her eyes.

"She's right in here," he replied.

She nodded roughly and huffed her way into the quaint cottage. I followed in shortly after only to be stopped.

"She's a rough girl. I hope she satisfies y-"

"SHUT UP DON! YOU HORRIBLE OLD MAN!" Manami screamed.

I laughed suddenly, seeing that he was purposefully picking on her. He laughed along with me and gestured me in. After he shut the door he caught up with me. He was amazingly fast for a man with a cane.

"Hey!" he said back, still laughing, "I helped raise you little missy."

"Nuh-uh!" she retorted, "Just shut up!"

I laughed harder seeing that she was getting so incredibly flustered.

"Manami..." I said, trying to calm her down and trying to get back into the attitude I had at Water 7, "Just calm down. I at least know the truth."

"True…" she trailed as she looked back at me, "Thanks Ka-"

"Yeah. And so do I," Don interjected with a wide, somewhat toothed smile that showed he was still picking on her.

It was just too funny. I had to laugh harder than I had this entire time. He was pushing this poor girl so far that her face was starting to rival the color of a cherry.

"DOE!!" she whimpered as she spun around and ran into the kitchen.

"Hahahaha!" Don laughed and leaned on me for some support. As he calmed down he stood up straight while pushing up on his wooden cane. "I'm sorry, sonny. I couldn't help it. I've picked on her for so long; it's become a force of habit."

I nodded.

"Well," I started as I too got a hold of my laughter, "I understand completely, and I have to admit I was very entertained."

Don smiled back at me, taking the compliment very well and started to walk towards the kitchen entrance.

"Well, come on then," he told me, "You and Manami have a job to do. Unless you're planning on leaving all the work to this poor little girl."

I laughed as I heard Manami yell loudly at the elderly man.

"I'm not little you old fart!"

"You are to me, little girl!" he yelled back.

I shook my head and threw in my voice before she could react to him.

"Mana! Respect your elders," I told her as I entered the kitchen along side Don who was incredibly happy with me that I had said that.

"I dun have t-"

"Manami!" came an elderly sounding, female voice, "You came here for a job. Not to bicker with Don."

"Yeah!" agreed Don with a smile, "You listen to D-"

"And you," she stated suddenly as she turned from the burning, open flame stove, "She didn't come here to be harassed by you, Don."

"But… But Doe-"

"Don't' you throw your buts at me!" she said sternly. She turned around completely and motioned to Manami and I. "You two. Head on outside and please check on the roof. I'm thinking it's formed a leak."

We both nodded and walked right out the back door with Don trailing close behind.

"Um… Sir-"

"Call me Don, sonny," he cut off, "I don't like being called 'Sir'. Makes me feel old."

I smiled, seeing that he didn't want me to be formal with him and also the fact that Manami muttered "That's 'cause you are…" under her breath to where his old ears couldn't hear it.

"Okay then. Don, would you happen to have a ladder we could use?" I asked, being very polite.

"Nope," he answered quickly, "Sorry. You're outta luck."

"YOU WANT US TO CHECK THE ROOF AND YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE A FRIGGIN' LADDER!" Manami screeched in frustration with him, "You old geezer!"

I sighed, seeing that this elder man seemed to push her "buttons" to a point where she screamed and decided I'd have to use my abilities to silence both her and Don once and for all. Or at least for a few seconds anyways.

I muttered under my breath something, using the trick of "Whisper if you want people to get quiet" and what do you know. It worked. The two of them stopped their yelling and screaming to look at me to question what I had said. I looked up from under the lip of my cap and stared at Manami dead on.

A smile appeared on my face as I shifted.

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_Well... THIS IS EXTREMELY FUN!! I couldn't stop laughing as I typed up this chapter! It was very entertaining to come up with. Now next chapter will probably be my attempt from Lucci's point of view. Hopefully it will be at least... somewhat okay and not completely horrible, seeing as though he's a sadist (I have no clue if I spelled that right...) and all and I'm nothing like that at all... well, I could be similar in someways... but anyways. Please keep reviewing! It helps me a lot! I need your feedback!!_

_-Love Maruri_


	7. Annoyance

My muscles were tensed very slightly as I hammered on a wooden plank along side one of the other shipwrights here. They all seemed like imbeciles to me, or at least compared to me they were, but I had been put under orders to not kill or harm anyone intentionally. How unfortunate…

"Hey… pigeon-guy," said a man who I was working with.

The corner of my lip twitched unnoticeably at the name I was just called. Flash backs of Luffy were coming back to me and that pissed me off somewhat and not to mention, when I first saw this guy, just looking at him annoyed me to no end.

His name was Jeffrey if I remembered correctly from when Manami was yelling at him about Kaku and I being her "boyfriends" or something, not that I could really give a damn.

"Yes? What is it you need?" Hattori asked.

I wanted to use my "ventriloquist act" here, seeing as though these… people didn't strike me at all as ones to read a file on a new employee. Very unlike the young girl I had just met.

The boy smirked.

"So… What in the world are you doin' here?" he asked in a very snide tone, as if trying to pick a fight with me.

I went to hammer in another nail, but my arm stopped in irritation with him. He was seriously annoying me now and it had only been a few seconds. Must be a new record for a person to do it that quickly. My left fist clenched around the handle of the "assault" weapon I had, but I tried to be careful as to not snap it right in half.

"We're here," explained Hattori, "because we were qualified for the job."

I went back to hammering as he spoke to "me" and did my best to block him out, but it seemed that it didn't really work very well.

"Really now?" he asked with a disbelieving voice, "You think that just because you worked at Galley-La, that mean's you're qualified for the job?"

My arm tightened again and a few veins appeared in anger as I did. He's really pushing my patience…

I stood up suddenly and gripped the front of his collar and held him close to me, My eyes turned to slits and my animalistic side started to surface… literally. The yellow fur showed itself slightly along with the spots and long claws extended from my fingers as I transformed into my fighting form.

All of the men around me stared in amazement, awe, and fear. The first two I wasn't used to, but fear? Oh but of course I was used to that now.

Jeffrey's expression changed from cockiness to afraid in a matter of seconds. I showed a very small smirk as I stared into the eyes of the "small" man in my grasp.

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_Sorry it was so short... My attempt at Rob Lucci!! Please! Please! PLEASE! I beg of you for feedback on this, if not anything else!! I need to know if I got his character right or not... Really I do... And please review!! It helps me!!  
_

_-Love Maruri_


	8. Ugh Training

I growled inwardly at this god forsaken table, with these god forsaken tools, and this god forsaken job. Why the hell am I saying "God forsaken" so much? AHH! I can't stand it…

I was still in the training grounds working on a "small" project to help me become an actual shipwright. Why in the world would I want to be? Just being apart of the same government occupation as Lucci and Kaku was bad enough. Now I have to do the same… job as them too?!

"C'mon, Jyabura," Ratchet encouraged, "You need to get this down as soon as you can. We can't have you as a trainee for the entire time you're here."

I snarled quietly to myself as I gripped the handle of a near by saw and started on the large log before me. My nose twitched and started itching as I breathed in the light weight saw dust that didn't just fall onto the work bench like the majority of it.

"Achoo!"

My arm went up and rubbed my nose after my outburst. Ratchet laughed. My head hung, ready to give up on this in complete disappointment in myself. I had thought that I could do this kind of work, but now… I'm not so sure that I can. I'm not as skilled with tools as those two…

"Alright, Jyabura," Ratchet called as he leaped off of the wooden plank he was sitting on, "Here. I'll help you out a bit."

His tri-colored hair bounced as he walked over to my aide. He gripped the handle with care and began to saw the edge of the log where I had started. My mind wandered to the subject of how he was. He acted so young and carefree, but he didn't exactly look it.

"How old are you?" I asked, not thinking or remembering for that matter that it's rude to ask that question.

"Hahahaha!" he bellowed as he stopped sawing, seeing as though he was losing his concentration. I know that I would not like to have my hand sawn off because of laughing. "Early thirties. But that's all you're gonna get to know."

I stepped back slightly and nodded.

"How old is…" I stopped, wondering what that little one's name was and if I should ask the question or not. Eh what the hell, right? "How old is Mana?"

"She twenty," he replied easily, going back to the wood, "But don't tell her I told you that. She's always trying to make it seem like she's not."

"What do you mean?" I pushed, "Does she try to seem younger?"

"Nope." The edge of the piece of wood dropped to the ground like a lead weight and landed on the saw dusty floor with a thud. He stood up straight, but kept staring at the log. "She tries her hardest to seem older. All the men here think she is, seeing that she acts older than she is usually, but there are those few times when she doesn't."

My eye brow cocked and he seemed to notice since he turned to me with one of his smiles.

"Deep down," he started, "She loves to be a kid. And she doesn't want to give it up. Mana came here at… I guess a young age. She started working with me when she was about… twelve I think it was. Was and still is the only lady who carries her own weight around here. I tried to keep it to where she didn't have to grow up so fast, but…" He looked down at the floor then and his smile lessened to a small sliver on his face. "But she just didn't want to seem like a little girl."

I opened my mouth to say something in reply, but he recovered incredibly fast and his smile came right back to his face.

"Alright then, Jyabura!" he said suddenly with an extremely happy tone.

I knew what was coming next…

"Time for you to get back to work and put this keel together!"

I groaned out loud as those words entered my ears. It was like poison!!

"Fine…" I growled in reply.

And everything was so relaxing and peaceful and not mobile just a few seconds ago… Why couldn't it just stay like that for at least a few, oh I don't know… TEN MINUTES OR SO!

My god… I'm going to die from frustration before I get to go home if this keeps up… I just know it…

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_Thank you for all of the people who are reviewing! It's really been helping me keep going with this. I'm enjoying it very much actually and I hope that I've kept Jyabura in character... or at least did for the most part. Please review guys!!! It really does help me!_

**_PLEASE GO LOOK AT THE POLL I HAVE ON MY PROFILE PLEASE!! IT WILL TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!! _**

_-Love Maruri_


	9. Giraffe Man

My eyes opened wide as I watched the… well… attractive young man before me shift into an animal, or at least half animal.

His height increased incredibly to the point where he was towering far above me. His neck extended to lengths beyond my imagination and pale, thin yellow fur surfaced over his skin along with large brown spots. The legs that he had bent back to where they were at an angle and his arms transformed as well. Hooves took the place of his hands and feet. His rectangular nose grew outwards and became wider as it started to join with his facial features.

As I stared at Kaku in awe and also a very small hint of fear of this new form of his, a petit smile showed upon his face and his ears twitched once my jaw dropped open about an inch.

"What's wrong?" he asked me as he leaned his head down to MY level, "Have you never seen a devil fruit user put his powers into action?"

"W-We-Well…" I stumbled as I stared into his eyes, "N-Not exactly…"

He laughed as he stood up straight.

"Sorry if it's frightening to you," he said in a somewhat not caring voice.

My insides tightened at the small non-caring tone, but it was shunned very quickly, seeing as though I was staring at him quite blankly and I shook my head rapidly as to come up with a reply.

"No… It's fine," I said back, "Really it is."

He smiled wider and then spoke something very quickly.

"Soru," he mumbled.

He disappeared suddenly. My eyes darted around wondering why such a huge… being could move so fast. He then reappeared at my backside and his long neck suddenly lifted me clear up off of my feet. I squealed and coiled my arms around his stretched neck. My expression scrunched up as I felt his throat contract as he laughed at my scared reaction.

"I told you I don't like heights, Kaku!" I exclaimed as I held myself close to him while he straightened his neck upwards slightly.

"I know," he replied, "But since he doesn't have a ladder, then this is the only way _we_ can inspect the roof."

"Ah… Euh…"

My stomach churned from the sudden, though slight difference in air pressure and altitude. I buried my face in the back of his neck so I could get the picture of the ground NOT being underneath me out of my head, but it wasn't really helping much…

"It's amazing. You're afraid of heights, and yet you work in a shipyard," he said in a somewhat mocking tone, "How in the world did that happen, I wonder…"

I shot up and glared at the back of his capped, giraffe head.

"You be quiet, Kaku!" I spat, "I worked hard to get where I am today! So don't you-"

"Manami," he spoke, cutting me off abruptly.

His head turned to me slowly and he stared at me. My eyes softened very quickly as I looked into his own and my head hung.

"I'm sorry…" I apologized, "I didn't mean to snap."

He nodded and looked back in front of him. As he leaned his neck onto the roof I gasped.

"Holy crap!"

I looked down at Don who stood there with that somewhat toothed smile of his and I completely forgot about my twisting stomach.

"YOU CALL _THIS_ A SMALL LEAK?!"

Don shook his head affirmatively to me.

"Of course, little missy," he said in a loud voice, but it wasn't to where he was yelling, "We've had worse."

My eyes rolled in their sockets and I climbed up Kaku's neck just a short distance to where I could step on the roof without falling and without knocking his hat off. I ran over to the gigantic scar in the metal top. It was as if it had been sliced open with a very sharp and very large can opener.

"Looks like it's been there for quite some time, Don," Kaku said while he too examined the rip.

"It has," Don confirmed from down below, "About two years in fact."

Both Kaku and I looked over the edge of the roof at him.

"Two years?" I started, "Two years?! How could you l-"

Suddenly Kaku's head was in front of mine in a second, cutting me off yet again from what I was going to say.

"Well," he said, "since we've done our job, I guess we'll head back to the shipyard now."

My eyes narrowed at the giraffe-man in front of me. I didn't want to go. No. I wanted to yell at Don some more.

"Oh no!" I said to him in reply, "He is not gonna get off that easy!"

I slid down off the roof, not caring how far down it was, and I amazingly, landed on my feet. I started to stomp over to the elderly man and my muscles were clenched in frustration with the old geezer.

"Don," I hissed as I approached him slowly, "You are SO- AH! HEY!"

Kaku was in front of me in his normal form YET AGAIN cutting me off. I went to lunge at him, but as it seemed… that's exactly what he wanted.

As I leaped for his back, his legs bent forward and his arms reached back behind him quickly. I cringed as I realized I had fallen into his trap and tried to evade it, but that didn't work either.

His arms locked around my waist and he held me there against his back firmly until I stopped struggling against his clearly stronger hold. I sighed heavily and gave up after few seconds. I could tell he was satisfied when he huffed in an accomplished way. He shifted me up onto his back and I reluctantly wrapped my arms around his neck. He nodded and smiled to Don politely.

"Please tell your wife that we will be back here in two days at the latest," he told him.

I sat up slightly and gave him a very odd look.

How on Earth did he know that?

"You bet I will, sonny." He walked up to Kaku and leaned in close to him, strategically hiding his mouth from my view as he whispered him. "And take good care of that little one there. She is yours after all."

My cheeks flushed a bright tint of red, and as it seems, Kaku took immediate notice to it. He nodded very quickly and leaped for the torn rooftop of the cottage. I turned my body as best I could and screamed out to the grinning and laughing old man.

"SHUT UP, YOU SHITTY OLD FART!"

**_

* * *

_**

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_Oh how fun this was to write! And I hope that you all know that these events have been happening at the same time. And I'm glad that I finally did one from my OC's point of view too! Please review everyone!! I'm thankful for the ones that have! Especially you Hella! I'm glad that you took the time to review!!_

_-Love Maruri_

_**P.S. Check my page often! I do update it with info about my stories!! You never know what might be on there!!** PM me people if you would like to. I would apprecitate it a lot! I love talking to people!!  
_


	10. You Need To Learn

They came rushing out of the training grounds to see what had just happened. Jyabura stood there with his mouth hanging agape and Ratchet stopped in his tracks and a smile slowly crept up on his face.

"Are you crazy, Lucci?!" Jyabura screamed while debating whether or not to rush over to the young man lying on the ground.

Lucci's feline eyes traveled over to the trainee. He was still in his fighting form and Jyabura was grating against his already worn thin patience. He was amazed at how quickly it had been depleted.

Suddenly Ratchet broke out into a loud bellowing laugh.

"Jeffrey. Jeffrey. Jeffrey," he said as he slowly walked from Jyabura's side over to the blue streaked blonde lying limply on the sandy terrain and he changed his accent purposefully as he continued, "Didn't I tells ya not to mess with our family?"

Jeffrey shot up sharply into a sitting position and glared his emerald eyes at the older carpenter from beneath his baby blue bangs.

"You need to shut up, Ratchet! It was because he turned into a... a..." He sneaked another glance over to Lucci who was pretty much having a staring contest with Jyabura. He shuddered at the sight. "Because he turned into a monster that I-"

"Who's a monster?" questioned a familiar feminine voice.

Everyone's attention turned to the gray tinted brunette girl who was riding on Kaku's back. Manami's expression was clueless as to what they were talking about and also completely oblivious of the... leopard-man just ten feet or so away. Kaku chuckled at her oblivious question and Jeffrey sprung to his feet in a desperate attempt to retrieve some of his pride and dignity.

"One of your new boyfriends is!" he exclaimed as he pointed to Lucci.

The Neko Neko user snapped his eyes back over to his previous prey, although it ticked Jyabura off seeing that he didn't interest Lucci any longer or at least at this moment.

Fortunately for Jeffrey, but unfortunately for Lucci, he wasn't allowed to hurt anyone here and he wasn't planning on it either, but he was on the verge of changing his mind rather fast. Which he wasn't exactly opposed to, since he had done it before.

"They're not my boyfriennn..." Manami's protest died down as she realized that he was referring to one of her partners. "Wait... what?"

Jeffrey shook his arm violently in an attempt to get Manami's attention to follow it to the devil fruit user. Her eyes did just that.

"Holy crap..." she trailed with her jaw hanging open as she finished the "p" in "crap" while she stared.

His form was freakishly impressive to her. Maybe even more impressive than Kaku's, but she didn't have time to decide that yet because Jeffrey became extremely upset with her reaction.

"What the hell Ratchet?!" he yelled as he twirled around to face his superior fully, "Why in the fucking world would you hire a freak like him?!"

"Freak?!" spoke up Kaku, still with Manami loaded up on his back, "Would you like to say that again?"

Jeffrey turned to Kaku to make a comeback, but his voice box just didn't seem to cooperate while looking the sword using assassin dead in the face. The only "good thing" he could come up with was...

"And why do you care? Are you one too?"

His voice was shaky as he spoke to him and luckily for Jeffrey, Manami's beeper went off.

She reached behind her and removed the beat up black beeper like thing from her back pocket and held it up into the light where she could see the small letters on the screen. It said it was the kitchen trying to contact her. Her thumb pressed onto the button on the top of it to turn it on and then her finger went to the side where another button was located.

"What's up?" she greeted.

"Time to get your ass into the kitchen, Manami," said a "rough" feminine voice, "We need you to set up the tables."

"Alright. Alright," she said in reply as she took her finger off the button, "Oh and Yuki." Her finger went back to hear her.

"What is it?" the lady replied again in that "rough" voice.

Manami smiled and took her finger off the button again.

"Drop the act," she told her in a "bubble bursting" tone.

As her finger pressed to button again, a sigh of defeat reached everyone's ears.

The line went dead.

She released a heavy sigh as well and removed the tip of her finger from the button and then moved back to the one on top and pressed the switch, turning off the speaker. She leaned forward slightly, hanging her neck over Kaku's shoulder so she could look at him, or at least as best she could.

"'Ey Kaku," she said. His head turned very slowly to face her and his expression wasn't one of kindness, but that didn't seem to faze the girl on his back any. "I need to head to the kitchen. Could you let me down?"

He nodded and released her legs from his hold. Manami smiled as she slid off his back and as she hit the ground on both feet, she plummeted to the dirt below her, apparently still not used to the change of riding on Kaku's back to level ground. The young man turned to her and a small smile crawled onto his face while he shook his head at her. His anger had been diverted slightly… for now at least.

Manami's head hung, but she looked up at her "best friend".

"Am I just a friggin' klutz?" she pleaded in a pathetic tone.

Kaku chuckled and offered her his hand.

"That's how it's looking," he told her with a smile. Manami's jaw dropped yet again and a cute expression, in her opinion, appeared on his face. "You expect me to lie to you?"

Her face and emotions fell straight into the ground like a post going into a hole and she took his hand.

"I guess not…" she mumbled while begin pulled up to her feet and started walking over to an enormous, rectangular, brown and red brick building. She turned back and cupped her hands around her mouth. "I call when it's all done and ready!"

Most of all the workers grunted in reply, but there were those few who actually said a one syllable word.

"Now Jeffrey," started Ratchet as everyone's attention went back to the boy wearing seemingly too tight of clothes, "You need to learn now not to mess with our new workers."

Jeffrey's expression soured as Lucci and Kaku went to each others side and stood there with looks that could kill. Lucci reverted back to his normal look and his white pigeon friend returned to his shoulder.

"You should listen to him," Hattori hooted while motioning to the both of them.

The blonde clenched his fist and his jaw in frustration with Ratchet and the two new carpenters before him. He growled low, but knew he was beat. Deciding that he should leave them alone to recover at least a little bit of his dignity he walked back over to the boat that he had been working on before.

Ratchet nodded his head, signaling for everyone to return to their previous occupations and Lucci followed suit, heading back to the fishing boat as well. Kaku though stood there waiting.

"So, what's the verdict, Kaku?" the fire color haired man asked as he walked over to him.

"Well," he began, "There's a huge scar in the roof of……"

******_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

* * *

_I am incredibly sorry that this took so long to get out. I have been... well, taking a vacation this last week and I never had real access to a computer. -sweatdrop- So I apologize again for that. But anyways, I hope you are enjoying this so far because I am incredibly and please pardon the "rude" word I had Jeffrey say, I mean, if it bothers you of course. It was the only one that fit for him at the time. Please review!! It's really helping me out here!!_

_-Love Maruri_


	11. The End Of Day One

"That meal was one of the best I've ever had!" exclaimed Jyabura as he followed Manami, Ratchet, Lucci, and Kaku to the main office.

"Then thank Yuki in the morning," Manami said as a smile came up onto her face.

Ratchet rubbed his stomach in satisfaction while he let go of a deep breath. His eyes were getting heavy from the lethargic feeling induced meal. Manami's smile got wider seeing that he was tired after a good meal and she was too, so it was a good thing that everything for today had had been done and finished.

"So what about the Moana? Is she finished?" she asked, looking at Lucci who was close to her side, but mostly expecting an answer from Ratchet.

"She's all done. Lucci was a big help on fixing up the hull. And Jyabura did pretty well on makin' her keel." Ratchet turned his side towards the roaring ocean. "She should be up and ready to sail out tomorrow."

Manami nodded in reply and looked back out in front of her. Ratchet pushed open the door to the office and motioned everyone in. Each one filed in one by one and the three working carpenters that stayed there headed up the stairs to their room.

"Oh!" Ratchet said before he headed off to his own room, "Manami!"

The brunette stopped trailing Kaku and looked back right as her hand touched the cold, steel railing.

"You, Kaku, and Lucci get to head back to Don's tomorrow!" he told her with a wide smile.

Manami's jaw hung as she looked back at him, but she was just too tired to do something back, or even reply in a verbal way. All she did was nod to him, giving in to her superior and caught up to Kaku's backside. Ratchet smiled at how easily she gave up to him. She was much like a little girl when it came to him telling her something. Well… usually at least.

As the three of them entered the room Manami sped to the dresser, grabbed her night clothes, and skidded into the bathroom as quickly as she could. As the door slammed shut, Kaku looked over to it with an odd expression, but Lucci just looked and then went over to his bed.

"Seems she wanted to get changed first," Lucci said while he unhooked his suspenders.

Kaku nodded in agreement and went to his bed too.

He vaulted himself on to the top bunk and sat right at the edge. His legs swung as he sat there with a somewhat tired expression. He felt restricted for some reason and he came up with a likely explanation to that. His hand went to his over-sized turtle neck and he gripped onto the top edge. The tips of his fingers tightened on the end of the zipper and he pulled it down.

"Ah… That feels much better…" he sighed as the sides of it fell over.

Lucci shook his head, knowing exactly how he felt, seeing that his shoulders released their tension after the suspenders' elastic straps tightened and fell behind him. The door to the bathroom opened suddenly. Manami had a smile on her face as she came out. Her two sizes too big night shirt and long, baggy pants hung off of her slim frame and flowed behind her as she too pushed herself up onto her bed. She plopped her body down onto the mattress below, her entire body of tensed muscles relaxing as the bed gave around her. She sighed heavily and Kaku looked over to the relaxed young girl.

"So, I'm guessing that you don't mind sleeping in the same room as two men, eh?" he asked her.

She pushed her back into an arch to where she could see him, even though he was upside down, and also to where she could pull the bedding out from under her.

"Nah," she told him while she slipped under the sheets and comforter and then laid back down to stare at the ceiling. Her eyelids became heavy and her mouth stretched open in a wide yawn. She turned onto her side to face the wall beside her. "I just hope you stay longer than the others…" She yawned again and mumbled her last sentence before she went in a deep sleep.

Kaku blinked at her, not being able to understand what she had just said and then looked to Lucci.

"Could you tell me what she just said, Lucci?" he asked

"She said that she likes us."

Kaku's eyes opened up and he looked back over to her. He gave into a quiet chuckle as he looked over to the girl sleeping in the bed across from his. She had fallen into a sleep state that quickly and had already gotten herself twisted up in her blankets and her mouth was wide open as she inhaled and exhaled while she slept.

"I guess what she told me was true," Kaku muttered to himself.

Lucci looked up to his hat wearing co-worker and then looked up to the bunk above him as Manami rolled over in her bed with her arm falling off the edge. A large sigh escaped her lungs and her limp limb swung back and forth as she relaxed even more on her bed. Lucci ignored the arm hanging down and removed his bowling-like shoes and pulled out his tucked white sleeveless shirt. Kaku was soon to follow with removing his shirt, exposing the muscle shirt he had on under it, and he loudly snapped his neck as he stretched.

The both of them took relaxing positions on their own beds. Lucci went straight to closing his eyes after his head hit the pillow below him and Kaku just laid there looking out from under the lip of his hat. As it seemed, having it on when he slept didn't really bother him.

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_I'm really enjoying this. I hope it's interesting to you all so far. I know that it took me like... eleven chapters to do one day, but I don't think I'll be doing that much anymore. I mean, I don't really know, but yeah... If you like that, please tell me. I just did it so long because... well... it's what I do. I've always done that. And I'm thinking I'm leaning towards Kaku in this story. I really do think I am. But anyways. PLEASE REVIEW!! It helps me keep going, guys!! And thank you to all the ones that have reviewed and are reviewing!!_

_-Love Maruri_


	12. Replacing

"I'm gonna end up killin' you, you friggin' old geezer!" I screamed while stomping on top of the part of the metal roof that was left, over to the edge to where I could see him. He was standing there with a grin on his face.

"You've said that many times, little girl and I'm still here," he replied.

My eye twitched at his comment and my hand twisted up around the stained, wooden handle of my favorite hammer.

It was the second day of working on this elderly couple's roof and Don had been grating on my nerves every single moment we were here and that's a lot of grating since we had to spend the night here. I had no freakin' clue as to why he did, but he always had. Ever since I had come here when I was twelve he had picked on me, always finding something different to say every time I saw him.

"Mana!" cooed the pigeon on Lucci's shoulder, "Get back over here and finish removing the roof."

I straightened up as "he" called me. My hand loosened around the handle and I turned around on the heel of my scuffed, foggy gray working shoes. I walked over and went back onto my knees with the forked end of the hammer positioned by a nail. I let my eyes travel to the right and then to the left, seeing how many nails I had around me that were within my reach and a pretty good number of them were.

I pulled upwards, dislodging the nail in front of me rather quickly and then going on to the next one then the next one moving quickly across the edges of the scrap metal that was left. I saw Lucci stand, lift the metal up at the end, and start to roll it into a tightly packed, metal spiral and kept it rolling right behind me until I was completely done with the nails.

"Good night nurse, Mana," Don sighed in a disappointed way, "It's taken you almost two days to put in a roof."

As I stood up, my legs tensed and my teeth grinded against one another.

"You know what, Don!!" I hissed through my clenched teeth, "YOU KNOW WHA-"

My threat was silenced by a tanned hand clasping itself over my mouth to shut me up.

"Manami," said Kaku in a sigh as he strapped his other arm around my shoulders and tightened his grip to keep me from escaping and possibly strangling this man, "Why do you let him get to you?"

Words did come from my mouth, but seeing that his hand was over it, they weren't exactly understandable and since they weren't, I became even more frustrated and attempted to move my arms up to the things restraining me to remove them.

"Don't even waste your time, Mana," Kaku told me. His chest rumbled behind me in a chuckle as I still made a desperate attempt, "I'm not going to allow you to harm a customer."

The more I struggled against him the tighter he held. My attempts were... well… futile and I knew I had to accept it. I wasn't going to be able to release my anger and frustration on the cause.

I relaxed and stopped my resistance. I heard Don laugh and yet again my blood boiled, but satisfaction come bursting out of the back door rather quickly.

"Don!" screamed Doe from the open door, "You need to leave them alone and let them work!"

"Oh 'cmon, Doe," Don protested, " I'm just-"

"Don," she said sternly, "Leave. Them. Alone."

He sighed. Doe always did have power over him and he always listened to her in the end.

"Fine. Fine…"

As he walked back into the house, Kaku released me from his grip and let me be back on my feet. I let go of my anger as best I could and returned my attention to the roof. I nodded at our work.

"Time to bring up the new one," Kaku stated while jumping down.

"Yep," I said confirming it more to myself than to him.

I followed suit and jumped over to the very tall metal pole sticking out of the ground and easily slid down to the ground below me then caught up to Kaku's side. I really didn't feel like leaping off the roof today like a few days ago.

"Alright," Kaku said as we approached the standing up right metal slab, "Lucci!" The man stood near the edge and nodded. Kaku moved his head in a quick down motion and turned to me. "Yosh. Mana, you ready?"

"Un," I grunted as the two of us positioned ourselves.

We slipped one hand under the large sheet of metal and the other on the side.

I took in a breath and my upper arm muscles clenched as we lifted the new roof up. My eyes looked over to Kaku who seemed impressed at how strong I actually was. I mean, lifting this thing wasn't exactly a piece of cake for me, but it wasn't brain surgery or something extremely difficult.

Once the top got far enough up, Lucci took hold of it and dragged it up, almost like it was nothing at all and taking the work from us as it moved out of our reach.

"Alright. Your turn Manami," Kaku said in a very innocent and playful tone.

I turned towards him, wondering what he meant.

"What in the world are you talking abouu- AH!"

He lifted me up from under my arms and tossed me gently to the gutter on the perimeter of the house. I hung off the metal like a painting on a wall and I was very unhappy about that. I glared my red eyes at Kaku as he leaped to the roof and squatted down while looking at me.

"Come on, Manami," he said as he leaned slightly forward, "Can't you get up here?"

My eyes narrowed even further and I planted the balls of my gray shoes onto the wall. I pushed myself up by climbing the wall. He was poking fun at me and I was not too fond of that. I reached my hand to grip one of the supports for the roof and my hand was right above it when my right shoe lost it's traction on the wall. Both of the soles skidded down the concrete wall along with me losing my previous attempt for the support. The hand that was holding onto the gutter edge tightened around it trying to keep me on and not allow me to fall to the ground. Fortunately for me, Kaku was right there where he could keep me from doing that himself.

"Up and adum, Mana," Kaku told me while jerking me up.

For the first time so far, I didn't stumble when the bottom of my feet hit the roof top. He smiled.

"It's still amazing," he said.

My nose scrunched up at his comment, knowing exactly that he was referring to before and I pushed past him.

I picked up my hammer, grabbed a hand full of nails, and went straight to attaching the metal to the supports. Kaku laughed at my aggressive reaction, but joined me and Lucci did the same, holding the new roof in place for me.

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!!_**

_I hope that this chapter suffices. I was pretty occupied as I wrote it so it kinda took a while to make and get out. I hope you enjoyed it though. Thank you to all who have been reviewing!! And please keep reviewing! It helps me to keep going!!_

_-Love Maruri_

**P.S. There is a new poll on my page that I hope you might be willing to answer. Please do if you have the time or feel like it.**


	13. Boredom

"And what brings you here, Iceburg-san?" asked the woman sitting behind the front desk. Her hair was dark violet and her eyes were as well only they had a blue glint on them. Her long, stick straight hair was put up in a neat bun which showed she was professional, but then there was what she was wearing which completely shattered that professional vibe. She wore short, tree brown shorts, a tight pink tank top, and her shoes were knee high, black, open-toed sandals.

"Nmaa~… Boredom as usual, Isis," he replied while scratching the head of his little rodent friend, "Is Ratchet anywhere on the premises?"

"Yes sir." She pointed back out to the shipyard from whence he came. "Out there is your and my best bet."

He nodded to her gratefully and exited. He joined his blonde friend who was not very happy about being there on his day off seeing that he was biting into the end of his lit and smoking cigar. Iceburg sighed seeing that Paulie wasn't going to cheer up very quickly and decided to start walking around the shipyard.

"Come on, Paulie," he said while slowly moving away from him, "We are going to go searching for Ratchet."

Paulie groaned, but caught up to him quickly, not wanting to be left alone in this slightly unfamiliar carpenter's workplace. Iceburg was looking around at all of the men hard at work when someone's bellowing laugh caught his attention.

"Well! Well! Well!" came Ratchet's unmistakable voice, "Look who's come to relieve some boredom. It's Iceburg!"

Everyone in the shipyard stopped and looked over to where the voice had originated. All of their eyes opened up as they watched Ratchet and Iceburg approach each other with a smile and greet one another with a hand shake. When Iceburg came, it always signaled that he was bored of being in Water 7 for the moment and wanted a place to get away, not that anyone there minded him being there. In all honestly, they liked it when he was.

"Iceburg-san?!" screamed a feminine voice from across the wide, open, worn, and sandy path way.

Iceburg turned to see who had just exclaimed his name and he smiled. He never had to wait very long before she greeted him.

Manami bounded over the platforms with men on them that were working, and slid down a long plank of stained wood that was extremely smooth all the way down to the ground about fifteen feet a way. Her foggy gray shoes dug into the ground as she skidded to a stop and a wide grin was what she wore on her face.

"Iceburg-san!" she said happily, "Come to take a 'vacation'?"

He nodded to her with a smile as well.

"Nmaa~… As usual. I always love coming to see your bright and shining face, Manami."

Manami laughed at his flattering compliment.

"Yeah right, Iceburg," she said with a laugh, "You're just saying that to make me feel good."

"And?" he questioned, "Did it work?"

"But of course!" she replied with an even wider grin. Her grin then turned to a small smile as she saw Paulie standing there with his cigar held between his teeth rather irritated and she became curious. "What's up with you, Paulie?"

He looked at her with an expression that said he was not in the mood to talk with her or anyone at all. He stuffed his hands in his pockets letting out a rough and heavy sigh of smoke as he walked off. Manami's expression gained a confused look that seemed to ask if she had said something wrong. Iceburg placed his hand on her shoulder in reassurance.

"Don't worry, Mana," he said while bringing her attention back to him, "He's just being sore about me forcing him to come here with me."

"O… kay…" she said back, still feeling like she had said something wrong.

"So Iceburg how's everything…"

The three of them walked along one of the towering platforms with Ratchet and Iceburg side by side and Manami skipping backwards in front of them. Iceburg just smiled as Manami told him of all the different things that had happened since the last time he had come.

"And you wouldn't believe how big Hades has gotten!" she said with her arms showing her estimate on the length of what she was talking about.

"Really now?" Iceburg questioned and looked over to Ratchet who was grinning, "Nmaa~… What have you been feeding him?"

"Only what he's supposed to be eating!" Ratchet told while laughing, "He's just getting as big as he's supposed to be, he's just skinnier than he should be."

"And where is he?"

Ratchet looked to Iceburg while placing his hands on his hips and his expression asking if he really just asked that question. Iceburg gave him a smile that replied with saying yes I did and Ratchet sighed.

"Really Iceburg? Really?"

The blue haired man nodded, still with that smile.

"Well then…" Ratchet started while slipping his hands in his pockets and then looking down. He stared at the ground beneath him for a few seconds as they kept strolling along and then his head came right back up with his big smile. "Like hell I know!"

They all broke into a laugh at his answer, but their funny moment was interrupted quite suddenly.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" screamed Paulie from a little ways away from them.

As it seemed, his cigar had dropped straight out of his mouth when he yelled and Manami jumped about face to see who he was getting so upset with.

"Paulie!" she said in a stern voice as she leaned up on the balls of her feet, "You leave my partners alone!"

Paulie froze as she said "partners" and his attention shifted from the "traitors" on one level of the platform to her.

"'Partners'?!" he said in astonishment, "'Partners'?!" He snapped his arm to point at them as he spoke. "Those two tried to kill Iceburg-san! Not too mention they're from the Wo-"

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Paulie," Manami cut off, "From the World Government. I know that already!" She stomped up to him and stood her ground firmly in front of him. "They're assassins, devil fruit users, an' blah blah blah."

Luckily for her most of all the workers were too busy paying attention to their projects than listening to her. That or they didn't really care.

"Manami!" Paulie argued while leaning in towards her, "They tried to kill Ic-"

"I know Paulie, but they're still valuable to this shipyard! And they're my partners!"

"But Manam-"

"Ugh!" she growled with a harsh sigh. Her body shifted once more to face Iceburg almost fully. Her arm pointed up as she leaned over her hip slightly. "Iceburg-san!" she called getting all of his attention on her, "Does it threaten you any to have them here?"

Iceburg blinked a few times at her, processing her question and then he looked up at the two CP9 members who were standing on the edge of the wooden planks awaiting an answer. He nodded his head, confirming to himself that he had come up with his answer.

"No. It's doesn't."

Paulie's jaw practically dropped to the ground below and his eyes were completely amazed at his boss's reply.

"Are you serious?!" he yelled, not wanting to believe it, "How could you-"

Kaku appeared in front of him suddenly and stood there with a straight, serious face.

"Paulie," he started, while slipping one of his chisels into a holster, "We're not going to harm Iceburg in anyway. We promise."

Paulie's face twisted into a scowl as Kaku gave him a very small smile. His gaze went to Lucci who was still on the platform and his look soured. Lucci hadn't changed a bit. He still had Hattori sitting on his shoulder, still had that emotionless face, and still had those cold eyes. He turned back to Kaku and huffed while pushing past him.

"I don't trust you. No matter what you say to me," he spat while trudging away.

Manami sighed at Paulie's stubbornness to accepting that they wouldn't hurt Iceburg and turned to Ratchet. Her superior nudged his head up to her and she understood completely.

"C'mon, Kaku," she said while turning around and walking towards the platform, "Let's get back to work."

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_I got a bit bored and wanted to throw Paulie and Iceburg in there for a little excitement. :D Couldn't help it. Well, anyways, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! Please review and keep reviewing!! It's great encouragement for me!!_

_-Love Maruri_


	14. Job For Tomorrow

"Isis!" screamed Paulie as the small group sat on the low to the ground, handmade benches, ""You immoral woman! How could you wear such brash clothing?!"

Manami sighed roughly at Paulie's reaction to Isis's choice in clothes. He and Iceburg had been here about a week and she had been dealing with his disgusted reactions the entire time. He had scolded Isis and Yuki the most since he saw those two frequently. She was extremely happy though because she didn't wear anything like them, so Paulie never had the chance to complain about her.

"Go harp on someone else, Paulie," Isis growled while setting her paper sack on her mostly exposed thighs, "I wear what I like and that's that."

"I will not!" he protested, going to defend his opinion, "You work in a place where men are working all around! You should not show off so much sk-!"

"Shut up, Paulie!" Manami screeched. Her arm was extended, holding her hammer firmly in her grip with the rounded, metal end where the back of Paulie's head was previously. "She doesn't even work in the field, so leave her alone!"

The blonde man groaned from the pounding and pulsing sensation going on in his skull as he pushed himself up slowly. Iceburg laughed, trying to keep the lunch that Yuki prepared him securely in his lap.

"What's so funny?!" Paulie hissed, his head snapping up, looking from Iceburg to Kaku, who was laughing as well. He would have glared at Jyabura also, but he didn't know him that well and he was sitting on the other side of Manami who was beside him.

"Nmaa~… I'm sorry Paulie," said Iceburg while calming down, going to say the reason as to why he was, "It just seemed like déjà vu, only it wasn't Lucci who slammed the hammer over your head."

Everyone there, Kaku, Jyabura, Ratchet, Iceburg, Isis, and Manami laughed. Of course Paulie didn't, seeing that he was the cause of it and Lucci didn't because… well… he was Lucci. He never did show much emotion.

Their laughter died down as Paulie sat back in his spot beside Manami.

"Just eat your lunch, Paulie," said Kaku in a lighthearted tone.

"Well what if I don't want to, huh?!" Paulie said back sounding much like a little kid.

"Then don't," cooed Hattori from Lucci's shoulder while he took a bite of his rice ball.

"Oi! I wasn't talking to you Lucci!" he yelled, getting flustered, "AND SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, YOU BASTARD! I know you're capable of it!"

Everyone's attention, even though most of them already knew he could, went to Lucci who just sat there, tuning everyone out as he ate. As he swallowed, he looked up and slowly scanned over all of the faces and then stopped at Paulie. His face was still emotionless.

"What if I don't want to?" said Hattori, imitating Paulie's earlier comment to Kaku.

Paulie leaned back, his eyes wide. He went to yell something else, but saw Manami grip the handle of another tool on her belt, although he couldn't see which one, and sighed heavily not wanting to be bashed over the head again. Manami released the "weapon" she was about to use and went back to her lunch.

They all sat there eating and talking, or at least most of them did, for about ten minutes when a high pitched scream came from inside the kitchen. Their attention, along with everyone else's who was out there, went to the front door or the building waiting for someone to come busting through the double doors and something did, it just wasn't what they were expecting.

"Get out of here, now!" squealed the clearly feminine voice and whatever was in there did just that.

An eight legged, dark chocolate brown arachnid with irregular blue splotches randomly placed all over the body, and was about the size of a large dog came stumbling out of the doors and down the steps. It got twisted up in its own legs, tripped, and tumbled in an unorganized summer salt until it collided with a pile of work wood. Everyone's interest went back to their lunches, making the two assassins assume that this wasn't something new, but it was something new to them.

Manami sighed after swallowing the mouthful of rice she had just bit off and looked over to the struggling spider that was underneath the wood.

"My god…" she trailed as she set her open-topped tray on the ground. She stood up and jogged casually over to it and removed the heavy planks from pinning it any longer. "If you were hungry, you should have come to your owner, ya stupid spider," she scolded, lightly kicking it in its abdomen.

It looked up to her, its four eyes staring back at her with an apologetic and hungry look. One of Manami's hands went to her hips and the other pointed over to Ratchet.

"Go talk to him. I'm not the one who feeds you."

It moved its gaze from her over to Ratchet and quickly crawled over to his side. Propping its two front legs on one of the few open spaces that were there, it looked up to him with hungry, glazed over eyes. Ratchet smiled at his pet and patted the top of its head while setting his lunch on the ground as well.

"Alright. Alright Hades," he said as he got up off the bench, "Lets go get you somethin' to eat."

"Nmaa~…" Iceburg grumbled as Manami sat back in her seat and picked up her lunch, "You were right, Mana. Hades has gotten big since the last time."

"Told ya!" she said with a smile.

Kaku and Lucci looked at each other since Ratchet wasn't between them at the moment. Lucci didn't say or show anything, but Kaku had curiosity written all over his face.

"Mana," he started as he went back to face her, "What was that?"

She looked up, just about to take a bite out of the rice ball that she had, but stopped in order to answer him.

"That was Hades," she explained, "Ratchet's pet arachnid."

He kept asking questions and she kept answering. She told them all about Ratchet and finding Hades a little after she had come.

She told that Hades had been the size of a grape fruit when Ratchet had first found him on a trip to a different island. He had taken care of the small spider and when it was time for him to leave the island, Hades didn't want to be separated from his chosen owner. It wasn't Ratchet that chose Hades though. Hades had chosen him and stowed away on the boat he was on. Ratchet had no idea until he got back to his home when he unloaded the new supplies he had received and found a dehydrated and starved anthropoid.

"And that's why we think Hades has always been as skinny as he is," she concluded.

"Well, that is interesting," Hattori said.

"Yeah," agreed Kaku, "Very interesting. I never would have thought that one of those spiders would ever have done something like that."

"Same as me, but hey. Hades was very small when he was found, so that could be a facto-"

"MANA!" came Ratchet's voice from inside of the main building.

She sighed and looked in that direction.

"What?!"

He looked out of the door of the main building with a wide smile and was holding a rolled up and tied packet of paper. Her face sunk as she stared. She definitely knew what that was and dreaded his next words...

"You have a skeleton to start on bright and early tomorrow!"

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!!_**

_I had fun with this! :D It was very entertaining to come up with. And I'm sorry if you have arachnophobia or have something wrong with spiders. I just wanted a new kind of pet fom everything else I could have thought of and I wanted to use the name Hades for the name and well... A spider was the only thing I could think of at the time, but I'm thinking Hades won't show up very often... I just had to add something else in this chapter and that's what I thought of._

_Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it! Please review and keep reviewing!! I appreciate it and it helps me keep writing!!_

_-Love Maruri_


	15. Saviors

Two days… Two days and only HALF of this friggin' skeleton was done. I know that I'm the only one working on it, but still! I do this for a living! I should be able to get the skeleton done in two days… right?

I sighed roughly at my feeling of inadequacy while taking a few minutes from the gigantic, or at least compared to everything else that had been built here, cargo ship skeleton to recuperate and "beat myself up" a bit. I was examining the half I hadn't built of the blue prints. I had been at work on it non-stop for two days now and was beginning to get frustrated with my abilities.

"It's a good thing it doesn't have a dead line…" I mumbled to myself while tracing the sketched out line of the hand drawn boat.

Ratchet had put me on this by myself, saying that he knew I could do it and I know I can do it, but I just don't think my customer wants to wait very long for it…

Rolling the layout back up, I stood and walked back over to my project.

Break time over.

Getting back into my groove, I worked as quickly as I could to get the bottom of it built, but I knew I had to be careful as I pieced it together upwards. The supports that were holding it, practically it's mold, were groaning out constantly as I worked and my gut kept telling me to fix whatever was causing the wood to complain, but I kept shunning that, trying to reassure myself that everything was fine, even though I knew that when it had been built, it wasn't thought that it was going to have to handle this much weight.

I walked down to one of the supports for the keel and stood on top of it to inspect the work I had already done. Looking up through the many large planks and rectangular prisms of wood to the blue, cloudless sky above was always pretty awesome to see. I heavily let go of the large breath in my lungs. I had to get this done, but the scene I was staring at was just so captivating. I couldn't seem to look away…

_!SNAP!_

My head fell to the supports below me and I dug my top four teeth into my bottom lip.

'Shit…' I cursed, knowing exactly what had just happened.

I locked my head up to see if anything had been altered or messed with or something along those lines and sure enough, one of the outer supports had cracked completely. My body trembled, becoming afraid of the fact that the wood could and would topple over any second now. The other half of the ship was still standing strong, but the half that I was under was not in the least.

My heart pounded in my chest as I cautiously moved across the plank below, never taking my red eyes off of the splintered post. It started to lean and I froze. That wasn't such a good idea seeing that if I did for too long I would surely be crushed by the weight of the wood. I went back to retreating and quickly turned my back on the danger threatening me.

Not one of my better ideas…

The crashing of the wood sounding through the air around me reached my ears and my limbs became heavy as lead. The cruel fact that I wasn't fast enough to escape it was accepted and I halted in my tracks. I gulped. It felt like time was going so slow, but in reality it wasn't.

I slumped over, bending my knees and curling my upper body into a defensive and desperate protective position, preparing my frame to give in to the weight I was going to receive.

'Well this is just great…' I thought while waiting, still hearing the snapping and crunching of the skeleton.

The vibrations of it all coming down became louder and more violent and my knees bent even further, attempting to distance myself from the oncoming pain. I tensed, the loudest crunch roaring out, signaling it had all given and was plunging down towards me, but two familiar voices reached my ears…

"Tekkai."

The terrifying echoes of the wood hurtling down completely stopped.

Still in my protective stance, my muscles launched me two inches into the air as I felt someone's hands grip my shoulders.

"Oi, little one," said a deep voice, "Are you still with us?"

"J… Jyabura?" I said in a questioning tone while he gently pulled me out of my position to help relax my muscles.

"Jyabura," said Kaku, whose long giraffe neck was stretched out along the massive pile of wood that was amazingly being held securely in place, "Move her out of here so we can let this fall."

Jyabura nodded and picked me up, seeing that I was much too busy staring at the two animalistic men who had just saved my life to do much of anything. Seeing the two of them together like that was freaky, but extremely awesome to me and for some very odd reason, the fact that I had never seen Jyabura's form yet entered my mind.

Kaku looked over to Lucci and without moving, somehow confirmed to each other "Time to let it go."

Lucci went first.

He moved swiftly, even though he was a seriously huge leopard hybrid which was much bigger than the form I had seen first. The wood, losing one of the supports it had, sunk and put a little more weight on Kaku, but he was soon to follow Lucci's lead. He quickly slid his long neck out from under the splintered wood, having every ounce of it slam onto the platform below. Both of them stood straight with Kaku towering above each one of us.

"Manami!" exclaimed two other voices that joined in with the clicking sound of running shoes.

The control over my muscles returned to me and I relaxed.

"Mana!" Ratchet whined while clinging onto my shoulders with all of the might he had, "Mana! You're okay! Oh my god, you are okay!"

I laughed and grinned at the caring, and fatherly way he reacted to the whole incident. Even Iceburg had a relieved look on his features. Apparently, he cared almost as much.

"Of course," I said back, quickly shaking off every bit of the previous fear I had and going back into my natural persona, "Thanks to those three I am." I looked over to the three of them, both Lucci and Kaku had reverted back to their normal forms, and they were all standing side by side. Kaku with a small smile, Jyabura with a big grin, and Lucci with his normal face.

Ratchet's arms released my upper body from his hold. He turned me around to him and his yellow eyes glowed with concern and as I stared into those irises of his, I smiled. He was going to put someone on this job to help me.

"Don't trust the frame anymore?" I asked with a smug smile, knowing exactly what he was thinking.

He smiled back, seeing that I was finally reading him correctly since I had failed so many times before. I had been here for eight years and now I'm able to read him, but only when I'm up close to his eyes. Oh how I have failed at being able to read him as well as he can read me…

"Correct, little one," he said. His smile became wider and more playful when he saw my pupils narrow at the words "little one". "I'm putting your partners with you on this project. AND!"

I cocked my head to the side. Who else was he going to put on the ship with me? Hopefully not someone I didn't like…

"Jyabura is going to as well. It'll be his second project as a carpenter out in the field."

Jyabura groaned as Ratchet finished his statement and I laughed as a reaction to the complaining.

"Oh come on, wolfie boy," I said while turning around to him, "It'll be fun. You'll finally get to work…" My red irises flashed an innocent yet mischievous glint. "With me."

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_This one was a little tough to write, seeing that we were reading Julius Caesar in my English class... But hey. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the next is coming out very soon I hope. Please keep reading and reviewing!!_

_-Love Maruri_


	16. Terms of the Game

"'Ey! Jyabura! Can you give me a boost? I can't reach up there."

"I can," he replied, "That doesn't mean I will."

Her red eyes narrowed at him and her arm fell to her side.

"Just get your ass over here!" she exclaimed while violently jerking her hammer up from her belt.

He sighed and stood up from the board he was sawing.

"Thank you," she said as he lifted her up onto his shoulders. She pushed herself onto her feet to where she could reach the hole at the top of the wall. Jyabura's hands went to her ankles to steady her.

"Yeah. Yeah," he said back, doing his best to balance, "Just hurry up before you fall."

"Hey!" Manami argued, "If I fall it'll be your fault!"

"No it wouldn't! It would be your fault!"

The two of them argued about the technicality of her falling off his shoulders and why it would or wouldn't be his fault while she beat the new board into its place.

It was the morning of the third day and the cargo ship was almost complete. Lucci and Kaku had been hard at work on the hull since the day before, after the skeleton had been rebuilt of course, and Manami and Jyabura focused on the interior as they did. The four of them were close to being done… with the building portion.

"Stop bickering, you two," hooted Hattori from the opening to the deck, "Ratchet's informed that we are going to have to use a bit of creativity when we decorate."

"Creativity?!" yelled Jyabura who twisted around to face him, "Why in the wor- Whoa!"

Manami slipped off his shoulders, but luckily she fell forward so her legs hung over his upper body and latched around his backside with his long braid actually dangling neatly over her lap.

"I told you!" she said bending over while sitting, amazingly, comfortably on his shoulders, "You're the one who made me fall!"

"Well sorry!" he retorted in an irritated voice, "It's not my fault we weren't told this before!"

"Oh stop complaining!" Manami told him while hitting him lightly over the head.

Jyabura went to hit her back, but was stopped by Kaku who appeared beside him and grabbed his wrist before he could.

"Jyabura, don't stoop to her level," he said to him with a smile that showed her was being playful.

The Inu Inu user decided to agree with him and released all of the tension in his arm. Kaku smiled more and chuckled at Manami's sour expression. She leaned to her left and attempted a swipe at him to knock his hat off, but he was much to quick. As she reacted to his dodge, her arms went around his neck to keep her on. The both of them laughed and her tongue stuck out of her mouth.

"Nyah!" she said as she did and they laughed more.

"Kaku," echoed Lucci's deep voice still from the top deck, "We need to get started with carving."

The capped young man nodded, acknowledging Lucci's subtle order and then patted Manami's thigh as an apology before leaping up to the upper level and landing beside Lucci. She grunted in reply and crossed her arms over her chest like a little child.

"What are we supposed to do?" Jyabura asked before they turned to leave so they could get started on their own job.

"Paint!" Kaku said with a noticeable grin playing in his voice.

Manami shot up into a straight like a pole position and her eyes showed irritation and upset.

"Nooo!" she whined, "Anything but that!"

"Sorry Mana, but that's your task!"

She slumped over, her forearms being placed on top of Jyabura's head and her chin then on top. He didn't really feel like making her get off his shoulders so he started for the flight of stairs with the young girl loaded up on his upper body. He rolled his eyes upwards as if he was going to be able to see her face from that angle and he held onto her calves. She seemed to be pouting about the order that they had been given.

"What's your problem?" he asked her, still looking up, "I thought you were a 'master painter' or at least that's what Ratchet had told me."

Jyabura felt her diaphragm expand and then deflate.

"I've had to paint god knows how many different things…" she muttered while rolling her chin back and forth across her arms, "And I'm just so tired of it… It's so boring now."

Right as she finished her "boring" statement and Jyabura took the first step onto the deck to see the multiple paint cans stacked up and around each other, he perked up, just like a dog that had just heard the name it wanted. A smile crawled onto his face. A very sly smile. Maybe... If she was so tired of it maybe he could take advantage of that and get something out of it.

Ah, the cunning of a wolf is amazing.

"Well then," he started and Manami sat up slightly. He smiled. The tone of his voice caught her attention and apparently her curiosity. "How about we make this paint job interesting?"

"And how do you suppose we do that?" she asked, looking around to his face as best she could.

His smile got wider and more sly.

"We split the ship in half between the two of us and see who finishes first."

The young girl sat up more and stared at the back of his head with a very odd expression.

"You mean… a bet?" she said, translating it into a term that made much more sense to her and he nodded. She paused. She didn't quite know if she should agree to it or not especially if she didn't know on what terms they were betting. "What are the rules?"

His smile just kept getting bigger and bigger as he spoke. He was extremely cocky about this little wager and he quickly went to explaining the rules of the game.

"We don't use any kind of inhuman abilities, if you have any of course." Manami lightly hit him yet again and he growled low, but kept on. "We split the ship equally between us and see who finishes first."

"And the terms of the game?"

"I win, you have to do my tasks, along with your own for… lets say a week, and if I lose-"

"If you lose, you have to…" Manami paused as she thought up a good consequence for him. She smiled as one came to her. It wasn't degrading like most of the ones she could have thought of, but she didn't think he'd like it and as far as she could tell, he wasn't the kind of guy who would go back on his word. "If you lose, you have to be my dog for a week."

Jyabura halted in a mix between a squatting and bent over position.

"Your… 'dog'?" he repeated, feeling her quickly dismount his collar bone. He wasn't quite sure what she meant by "dog", seeing that there were two different definitions, and maybe more, to the word. "What do you mean 'dog'?"

She had an innocent smile and a bright sparkle in her eyes as she picked up four different pales of paint and lightly tapped the stationary blue prints with the tip of her foot to where it would roll out flat.

"You know," she said while bending down to the out line and looking over it, "Dog." She looked out of the corner of her eye and saw that he was still confused as to what meaning she meant. Her eyes closed as she let out a sigh and stood up. "A dog. Ya know… Woof. Woof."

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_Well... I hope you've enjoyed this one. I know I did while I was writing it! Please review and keep reviewing!! Thank you to everyone who has! It's very great encouragement!! Next one will be coming out soon!!_

_-Love Maruri_


	17. And the Winner Is

It's really amazing… I just might lose this little wager…

I was painting furiously on the wall in front of me, extremely worried that I was going to lose this bet. She seemed to be painting slower than she usually does, or at least from what Ratchet has told me she was. Maybe she wanted me to win… Or maybe she was just trying to get on my nerves by showing that she could beat me even if she wasn't putting her all into it. And if that was the case, guess what…

It was working.

I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw that both me and her were on the last stretch of the last wall. Her expression was content as she stood there being a perfectionist, making sure there were not blank spaces wherever she painted. My eyes narrowed, but then widened as I saw that even though she was perfecting her work, she was now moving much faster than I.

"Crap!" I yelped while painting faster, but doing what I could to not do a horrible job.

Lucci and Kaku chose to be referees in the game since they had decided to watch us after Manami mentioned the bet at lunch. Seems they wanted to see who would win, or probably, in their opinions, see me lose. Not too mention, Iceburg and Paulie said even they would delay their departure just to see who would win and see if Manami's reputation as a "master painter" was true.

"Oooooh!" Kaku cooed loudly, "Manami just might beat him!"

Kaku purposely screamed so that our waiting spectators would hurry to see the verdict of who won. My jaw clenched in worry as I watched her approach the last part of the trim.

She only had about two inches to go and I had around four! I was going to have to be her dog!

Literally!

"Shit…" I cursed aloud while speeding up. I was catching up to her quickly, but unfortunately…

"DUH-HUN!" Manami sung as she took the brush away from the wood and stood up straight.

I cringed, the words slithering into my ears. She was done… Holy shit…

"Nmaa~… Manami is the winner!" stated Iceburg to all of the men that were on the deck and also to the ones surrounding the boat at the bottom.

My head hung as I finished the last little bit I had left, not wanting to be scolded for not doing my job.

"Well," hooted Hattori up above on Lucci's shoulder, who was leisurely sitting on the railing. "Let's see if you're going to be a good sport, Jyabura." Lucci pulled a shiny, red, rubber ball out from one of his front pockets and flung it to the winner. "Manami, heads up!"

The young girl turned in his direction and happily caught the ball in her hands. An innocent smile appeared on her face as she gave her attention to me. My eye twitched while watching her jerk her arm down, releasing the ball at a fast speed. I flinched, the sound of the sphere smacking the wood below echoing, much louder than it was, in my cranium and a gruff breath was forced out of my diaphragm.

I morphed quickly into a wolf, fully into a wolf and just as my transformation was complete the ball had returned right back to her palm and her arm then snapped across her torso, letting go of it yet again to have it soar through the air towards an open field. I took off in a mad ash after it.

It was going to be a long week…

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_Just thought I'd just have a bit of fun with this chapter. I apologize for it being so short. I was just wanting to get another one with Jyabura's P.O.V. I hope that it was enjoyable and please keep reviewing!! The next one should be coming out soon. Just after my editor looks it over with me to catch any mistakes that we can! Please review! It's good encouragement!!_

_-Love Maruri_


	18. The Plan

I pushed open the door to the main building and looked around while snapping my neck. My bones seemed to be housing more pressure than usual. Maybe it was because I hadn't had anyone to take out in a while... I was getting somewhat bored, but I was told not to kill. Still… How unfortunate…

All the lights in the major part of the downstairs reception area were off. Isis must have turned in for the night, but the light to a "meeting" room was on, shining brightly into the open and empty area I was in.

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it hadn't killed me.

I walked silently over to the wide open door and looked in slightly.

Ratchet and a few of the other main people were all gathered around a large table, much like a conference room, and as it seemed, they were all contemplating a plan. There was Ratchet, Isis, Yuki, and Aure, who was a large, dark tanned, robust man with a five o'clock shadow, buzz cut, dark brunette hair, a lengthy dragon tattoo going up his left arm and extending onto the upper part of his chest, and, very unlike the character he seemed to portray, wore glasses seated at the table.

Hattori landed on my shoulder and was about to coo until my index finger quickly went to my lips, signaling him to not make a sound. My little avian friend released the air he had taken in and watched closely as I did.

"Alright…" started Ratchet while placing his forearms on the table in a professional way, "We need to get the word around so we can make sure that they go out of the shipyard and stay out for a good part of the evening."

I moved closer to the open space as the meeting progressed.

"Well, that shouldn't be too hard," said Isis while leaning back in her chair causing two of the legs to rise up, "But I still don't really see why…"

"Isis…" Yuki said in a quiet voice. One of her pale arms rose up, the hand attached releasing her white apron from her nervous hold and then twisting and twirling a large curl of her pink hair. "You seem to never notice how chummy those two are."

Yuki was a young looking woman who was one year older than I. Her bright shade of dark pink hair was made up of multiple, large, natural ringlets. She was extremely shy and her shining blue eyes expressed that frequently. She was a cook here, but her outfit screamed more of a maid than anything else, but then again she loved to help out others as much as she could. Her skin was pale, but it suited her and her frame was very frail looking. It was impressive she was able to do what she could.

"Well no," Aure spoke up, his tenor voice throwing a reply out to Yuki's comment, "You really think Isis, of all people, would take notice of something like that?" His back laid flat against his chair as he pushed up his spectacles. "She's lucky if she even gets to see that little one anymore."

I stood straight and looked to a shadowed wall that was across the room from me. I had a very good idea of who they were talking about and for some very odd reason, I wanted to be included in this briefing, but I also didn't. It was that whole curiosity verses an "it's all pointless" attitude conflict. Hattori shifted on my shoulder and slightly nudged the rim of my hat. I looked over to him and understood that his signal was telling me they were about to start up again.

"Aside from that," continued Ratchet, "we just need the word to get around without either of them knowing. That's the main objective here."

The other three nodded in agreement with their boss.

"I'll inform everyone in the kitchen," Yuki said, still messing with the ringlet.

"I'll get the word to the men in the bunk houses," Aure confirmed while standing from his seat, "It won't take long for it to spread there."

"And I'll let my runners and messengers know as soon as I see them," Isis spoke while stretching.

'What about that insignificant little blonde?' I questioned, more to myself than to any of them seeing that I asked inwardly.

And just as if he had heard it…

"Oi, Aure," the spiky haired man began, his arms raising up and his hands going under to support his chin as he thought, "What about Jeffrey?"

"What about him?" the large man asked as he turned back around to face Ratchet.

He sighed while lacing his fingers together and shutting his yellow eyes.

"He's not too happy with me… I'm afraid that he won't go along with it…"

Aure laughed while setting his hands on his hips. His voice echoed through the main building. He always was annoyingly loud at times.

"Don't you worry about that small fry," he reassured as he started to head for the door, "I'll take care of him myself."

I moved far into the shadows, disguising myself with the wall behind me. Aure exited out of the brightly lit room and passed me without even a glance or suspicion. Either he was completely and utterly unobservant or he just downright didn't care, but I wasn't going to move any time soon because Isis and Yuki were soon to follow.

"Good night, Ratchet," Yuki hummed while removing her apron from her waist.

"Yeah," Isis agreed, "G'night!"

The both of them walked past me as well. It was slightly surprising that neither one of them noticed the bright white pigeon that was situated on my shoulder.

Once I was sure that Ratchet wasn't leaving the room I left the darkness behind and headed up the stairs to the room where Manami was most likely sound asleep and sprawled out over her mattress and Kaku was probably relaxed on his bunk reading up on something.

...

After about minute after the three of them left, the main director stood up from his chair and then the sound of footsteps going up the spiral staircase reached his ears. He looked to the open door and silently made his way over to it. He looked around the "empty" room and then saw the faint silhouette of Lucci walking down the upstairs hallway. A smile appeared on his face as he watched him fade.

He knew Lucci wouldn't tell.

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!_**

_Well... I wanted to give another shot at Lucci. I hope it was enjoyable. Oh, and if you ever see: _...

_That means P.O.V. Switch. More often than not, if I use it, it will be in 1st P.O.V. chapters when I just feel that I need to switch to 3rd for a second. That's how it was in this chapter. ^_^ But anyways. Please review! It helps me keep going!_

_-Love Maruri_


	19. Set Into Motion

The two of them strode down the open isle between to large platforms side-by-side and smiles of amusement on both of their faces.

"Oh, you be quiet!" Manami said with a laugh while roughly rubbing her soaked hair down with the pastel yellow towel that was on top of her head, "It was you fault." Her eyes shined playfully as she looked at her partner.

"I warned you," Kaku defended. He adjusted his hat on his head as he looked at her as well.

Both of them paused, their faces going straight. They both locked gazes and Manami's arms went to her sides, leaving the towel where it was.

Manami gave first.

Her diaphragm rattled with a giggle as she submitted to the sweet and cute smile that Kaku gave her. He chuckled in reply to her girlish laugh.

Everyone around, having gotten the word, had kept their mouths shut about the whole plan, leaving the two "victims" of it completely clueless and unsuspicious. Ratchet was correct when he assumed Lucci wouldn't talk. As the two of them walked, the people around were becoming an audience to their friendly moment of laughter and Manami began to get that all too cliché sense of having all eyes on her.

She looked around at the different faces that were staring and a bright and, unfortunately, noticeable blush painted over her cheeks and nose. Her fist clenched.

"What are you all looking at?!" she exclaimed in embarrassment and nervousness with her face getting brighter.

The workers jumped at her roughly asked question. They all went back to their work quickly and the young girl huffed in irritation. She whipped her arm over, firmly grasped Kaku's wrist, and pulled him close behind her in a speedy escape.

"Stupid, friggin' gossips…" she muttered under her breath, still dragging her partner and pushing the large cloth off of her head and onto her shoulders.

They were headed to the main office to see Isis about an assignment. From being there long enough, Kaku figured they had to go into town to pick up supplies or something, but he didn't disregard that could be wrong.

"Mana!" Kaku laughed while easily catching up to her side, 'You don't have to acknowledge them, you know."

Manami growled deep as they quickly approached the propped open double doors.

"Oh sure…" she groaned, "Like I'm gonna be able to ignore all of those eyes on me when I am who I am…"

"You could always try," he replied in a low voice from about an inch and a half away from her ear.

The hair on the back of her neck stood on end and a rapid sensation, like an electrical current, shot down her spine as she stood straight. A very amused smile crept up onto his face as her reaction started to die down. A chuckle escaped from his lungs while returning to his previous position. Even though she felt as though she had stopped in her tracks, in truth, she had never ceased to keep moving.

"Don't do that to me, Kaku!" Manami scolded, breathing slowly as to keep her heart at a steady rate.

"It's just too fun, Mana. You tend to leave yourself open for it." Kaku enjoyed being able to work with this girl. She was very entertaining to be around when she worked and even when she didn't.

"Oh shut it," the brunette girl hissed as she stomped up to Isis and Kaku willingly trotted beside her.

And the both of them didn't realize that she was still holding his wrist.

Isis looked up from her paper work when she heard Manami's gray, scuffed shoes step violently, the sounds bouncing off the walls. Her violet eyes glinted with a wicked glare as she watched the two of them approached the front desk. She sat up in a position where all of her body weight was distributed evenly among her bones and her posture was very professional.

"Had I beckoned at the wrong time?" Isis asked with a smirk, still looking professional and most definitely implying something.

"No!" Manami barked, "Why the hell are you asking that?!"

The dark purple haired woman pointed, but not with her hand. It was more like with her gaze and both Kaku and she followed the look. Manami's face heated up again.

"Isis!" she yelped while quickly retracting her hand and clasping it together with her other one behind her back, "Don't say a word! It's not like that!"

The receptionist laughed, along with Kaku, at her defensive reply to the realization. Kaku hadn't really cared about the fact that she wouldn't or hadn't let go. It didn't make that much of a difference to him at all. All it meant was that she was angry and wanted to get them out of the shipyard as soon as possible, but by doing that she just kept setting herself up.

"Mmhm," Isis hummed, "I'm sure." She stood from her chair; her bones thanking her for letting her weight go back to its normal places. She grabbed a sheet of paper off the top of a short stack of assignments that she had received from Ratchet, looked through, and specifically chose one just for them. "Anyways…" She held the SINGLE page out to them. "Here's your evening project. It shouldn't take you too long."

Kaku took the paper from her, seeing that Manami was sulking and refusing to socialize with Isis which was much to her amusement, and started reading it over, making sure to get all of the details.

"So…" he trailed as he neared the bottom, "I'm guessing the tools we have are going to be needed?"

Isis nodded as she removed her hair from the bun it was in and letting it fall down. Her medium length, violet hair was incredibly stick straight and the amazing thing was it was naturally that way.

"Simple repair job," she told, Manami coming back from her pouting, "And I repeat. Shouldn't take you too long."

Kaku and Manami nodded to her affirmatively and headed out to the front area outside of the open doors. Manami looked over to her capped friend who looked back at her and she sighed.

"Are you serious?" she asked him while he got into a bent down stance with his arms spaced away from his side a bit, "Can't we walk?"

"Nope," he said back, nudging his head upwards signaling her to hurry up, "We'll be able to get there and back faster." He smiled at her. "You know that."

She sighed roughly and trudged over to him.

Isis watched in complete and utter amusement at seeing their means of transportation for the first time and at the fact that she "willingly" mounted his back. Her arms crossed over her chest and smiled while watching Kaku spring up and quickly exit the shipyard in the blink of an eye. She shook her head to herself and reached behind her. Her finger went to the button on top of the black and shiny beeper and pressed it, the small light on it illuminating a very dim greenish yellow light. She brought it up to her lips and a smirk of a job well done crawled onto her face.

"The deed is done."

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_This one was a bit tough to get down on paper... But I'm just glad it got written down. I'm gonna have fun with the next few chapters though. ^_^ I'm looking forward to getting them up. Please review and keep on reviewing y'all! I really appreciate when I look in my inbox and see that someone has reviewed!_

_-Love Maruri_


	20. Into Town

"Are you serious?" I asked myself as I stared blankly at the LOCKED front gate.

There were, not only the gigantic lock that Ratchet had fashioned for it a long time ago, but numerous large chains strapped, wrapped, and coiled all around it. My eye twitched in irritation at the fact that I didn't know why it was.

"Son of a bitch…" I cursed quietly while biting my tongue to prevent me from saying much else.

A tap on my shoulder brought my head back up from its hung position and my eyes met with Kaku's shadowed ones. I suddenly felt like I shouldn't really react to this whole situation violently like I usually do and then my entire body released the aggressive tension it was housing. My eyes traveled around my surroundings, stopped at a seemingly never ending road that lead towards and into town, and an idea popped in my mind.

"Let's take advantage of this, Kaku," I suggested as I looked back at him. My friend's expression distorted slightly at my sentence and I smiled. For once I had confused him. "Since we aren't going to be able to get in, as it would seem, let's head into town."

I advanced on the path before us with a spring in my step, Kaku right at my side. I loved how quick he was! I had been craving some time away from the shipyard and having Kaku with me made it all the more entertaining. Someone accompanying me into the city was always fun since where I was headed you need more than one person to enjoy yourself fully.

"And where exactly are we going?" questioned Kaku, his gaze straight in front of him.

"To a…" I stopped. Usually people might, and more than often do refer to it as a bar, but it wasn't really. It did have a bar of course, but it was much more than that. "Let's just say it's a kind of odd place," I said, "Not something you'd usually expect to find."

"Sounds interesting," he said.

I looked to the corners of my eyes and met his from the corners of his. A smile came on to my face and I nodded.

"It is, Kaku," I confirmed while looking back in front of me, "It really is."

My lungs expanded as I took in a breath of the wonderful aroma of freshly sawn wood that was saw dust filled and I stared at the faint, outlined silhouette of the town. We had a ways to walk, but, in the words of Isis from earlier… "Shouldn't take too long."

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_I hope this one leaves you craving more!! It was a bit hard to get out, but I got it out!! YAY!! Sorry it took so long and I apologize for how extremely short it is, but I saw that as the only way it could work. Please review guys!! It's good encouragement!!_

_-Love Maruri_


	21. The Twin Terrace

"YO!" exclaimed Manami from outside of an old fashioned building as she swiftly kicked open the swinging, saloon like door, "Where are the 'terrible two'?!"

"Have you come for some entertainment?" said two monotonous voices which rang out from inside of the dark building.

Manami gave the two anonymous speakers a smile in reply.

"Maybe, but only if you two allow my friend in," she told them.

The insides of the "Twin Terrace" slowly and dimly lit up, exposing the, just like the looks of the place, old fashion style interior.

The glistening, dark wood floor accented the deep red of the artistically placed bricks that made up the walls. Lighting was a mixture between light bulbs in foggy glass casings that hung from the ceiling and candles of various sizes that were placed tastefully in the middle of every handmade table which had chairs to match. The large counter that had many tall stool lining the front side of it, blended in perfectly, not over shadowing the wonderful atmosphere that filled every inch of the establishment and two young beings that were situated comfortably on a dual pair of seats in front of it came into view.

"But of course," the two of them spoke with, very astonishing, similar pitches, their voices monotone, along with their faces, "New guests are especially welcome." The both of them stood from their conjoined seat and advanced towards Manami and Kaku, their pace, including how their arms were swinging at their sides, were identical, but opposite. "Good day to you both," they greeted while stopping on either side of them, clasping their hands behind their backs, and bowing, and all in time with one another.

Kaku stared at the odd pair as they stood up straight, their arms returning limply to their sides. The two stared back with emotionless gazes and straight expressions until Kaku's hand came up and he snapped.

"That's it," he said while looking at their slightly curious faces, "You two are twins."

The two of them nodded.

"Yep," Manami confirmed verbally while the siblings straightened up their posture, "Kaku. I would like you to meet Cim and Cody."

"We've heard much," they said as they bowed yet again and then one of them stepped forward while coming back up.

"May I ask, are you able to tell who is Cim and who is Cody?" asked the ones whose eyes were mostly taken up by yellow.

Manami started to laugh as Kaku developed a hesitant smile and a small smirk appeared on the twins.

"We're just messing with you," told the one who had not stepped up and that one then joined the other at their side, "Our names deceive. Do not be fooled."

"I," started the one from before, "am Cody." The arms of this one came up and gripped onto something, then roughly pulled a roller like clip out from the hair that was curled around it, allowing feet of long black hair to cascade down to the knees and flare out as it adjusted.

Thanks to her hair, it had become quite obvious that Cody was a female.

"And I am Cimon," said the other, "but I am referred to as Cim." _(Pronunciation: Cimon - Ki-mon, Cim - Kim)_

Then the correct term had entered his mind.

Fraternal.

Cimon and Cody were very much alike to the point that it was close to horrifying, except they did have their certain qualities that were individual. Their eye color patterns were opposite. Cimon's eyes were mostly green with yellow around the pupils and Cody's were vise versa and there was also their hair. It was black, that they had in common, but Cody's was extremely long and it didn't have a flare like the one that Cimon's possessed since it was weighed down by how lengthy it was while her brother's was short and had a very obvious flare to it. Though it was incredibly frightening at how close their voices were in pitch.

"Please, come in and make yourselves comfortable," encouraged Cody, her voice not sounding AS monotone as it did before, while rolling her hair back up and going back behind the counter. As she turned the corner of it, the palm of her hand lightly slammed onto of a blending in button that was not obviously protruding from a support and amber shaded accent lights flickered on from above, showing off the extensive collection of drinks that they possessed. She looked over to her brother and nodded.

Cimon nodded back and quickly rushed over to a speaker that was connected to a large stereo speaker by a long wire and his voice had relinquished some of its monotone as well.

"Everyone," he said getting everyone's attention in the social and friendly place, "The usual evening festivities will be carried out as usual. From both my sister and I, we invite you to enjoy your time here!"

And as if he had said the magic words, everything there started up right away with excitement and friendliness. Manami grabbed Kaku's wrist happily and pulled him gently over to a stool and "forcing" him to take a seat along with her who, as she sat, spun around on the cushion once. While placing her arms on the smoothed over, crushed rock counter, Cody walked over as she tied her white apron around her waist and attended to her first customers of the "eventful" evening shift.

"The usual for you, Mana," assumed Cody as she brought out a large mug.

"You bet Code," Manami confirmed with a wide smile.

"And for you, new-comer?" she asked as she looked over to Kaku who was slowly scanning over the assortment of beverages.

"I would like…"

As Kaku ordered his own drink, Cimon inconspicuously moved to a back corner where he would not be seen nor heard. Bringing out a black beeper from his trouser pocket, he switched it on and put it up to his mouth.

"Are you there?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"I'm here," came a familiar person, "Are they there?"

"Yes, they're here," Cimon confirmed, "Do we just let it play out for now?"

"Yeah. This is what we need. Just make sure that they have a good time."

"You under estimate us," he said while chuckling quietly, "That's what we do best, Ratchet."

As he turned off the means of communication, Cimon looked over to the two sitting at the bar with his older sister filling up the mug that she had brought out for Manami with some special soda that they had gotten their hands on that she had fallen in love with.

"Do you really think that I would drink alcohol when I do the job that I do?" Manami forced out from between loud gasps in her laughing fit.

Kaku started to laugh along with her seeing that his surprised expression was quite obvious when Cody started pouring the carbonated drink into the glass. He grabbed the handle of his drink and downed about an inch of the sake he had in it. Their conversation continued as Cimon made his way back to his sister's side.

"We need to make sure they have a good time," Cimon said.

Cody smiled and patted her brother's head, ruffling up his already messed up hair.

"And I hope you told him that is what we do best"

"But of course."

"No," Kaku said just as loudly as Manami before, pretty much grabbing and pulling the twins attention back to the "couple" that were sitting at the bar, "I swear to you that I won't drink that much." Manami sighed with her shoulders falling over limply in relief and he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Or at least not tonight."

The two siblings practically doubled over from the laughter that shot out from their stomachs thanks to the expression that surfaced onto Manami's face.

"You two just enjoy yourselves tonight," said Cody with a sweet smile.

And enjoy themselves they would...

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_I hope that this one is enjoyable to you all. I know it is to me 'cause these chapters should be interesting to write. It's just a little tough to think of the right things to put in a date setting... I think I've got a few pretty good ideas to go in it... Or at least I have one. But anyways! PLEASE REVIEW!! It's wonderfully encouraging! _

_I hope you liked Cimon and Cody. I thought they'd be interesting characters to throw in._

_-Love Maruri_


	22. Fun

"Mana!" Kaku encouraged as everyone there gathered around the bar to watch Manami and Cody go at each other in some "friendly" competition, "Don't lose to her, Mana!"

The stereo-typical drinking challenge was taking place between the two females and every person there was huddled around to see the turn out, but the odd thing about it was that it wasn't alcohol they were chugging down. It was soda and the challenge wasn't exactly seeing how much one of them could drink, it was more like how long could each of them last until the burning, fizzy sensation of the drink became too much for them to handle.

So far, the both of them were on equal ground.

"Come on Cody!" cheered Cimon from his sister's side while watching her suck down the last of it that she had in her glass, "You can do it!"

The crowd around were chanting, pretty much switching between the names of them.

Cody's face flinched, the carbonation of her latest drink practically clawing at the lining of her esophagus causing her to lose the small bit of a lead that she had. Manami smirked as she brought the chilled glass of her next mug to her lips and quickly poured it down. The people started cheering for Manami, watching the liquid rapidly disappear down her throat.

"Crap…" Cody hissed as her eyes followed the last little bit of her competitor's drink fall into her mouth.

The sound of the large drinking glass colliding with the sealed, grounded up rock counter echoed through the room and all of the voices stopped. Eyes of various colors stared at the young brunette girl as she wiped the excess soda away from her mouth and a satisfied, victorious grin inched its way onto her face as her arm dragged across.

"I WI-HEN!" Manami sang while spinning on her bar stool quite a few times until Kaku reached out and stopped her as she became noticeably dizzy.

Cody's head fell in defeat as she stood up from her seat behind the counter and picked up the numerous glasses that were spread out along the surface. Cimon smiled at his sister for being such a good sport about the whole thing, seeing that she could be extremely competitive, especially when she was in her own domain, but then again… so could he. As the extremely long haired girl put the hard earned glasses into a large, metal lined machine, Manami looked at her friend and felt a bit guilty for dirtying up so many drink containers.

"Would you like me to assist you in someway?" asked both her and Cimon.

Cody looked up from the cavity in the wall and smiled very slightly.

"No," she told them while closing it up and then flipping up a switch causing the inside of it to give off a faint rattle, "I've got everything covered, but Cim…" He became even more attentive to her once she had said his name. "You know what's next on the agenda."

He nodded to her with a smile and stretched his stride out to where he could reach the speaker like phone faster.

"Everyone!" he cried out in a very excited voice, "We have a new 'activity' that we are very anxious to have tried out tonight and we are hoping that you all would like to participate!"

"Well then what is it?" asked one of the very social young men there who was apparently a regular customer.

"Dancing!" Cimon sung over the intercom.

A roar rumbled through out the establishment as they seconded his, or more like "their", idea.

Cody grinned at the beings reaction and looked over to the musicians that were all seated on a small stage. As they looked back at her, awaiting her signal, her head nodded and that was their cue.

The extremely thin brunette haired man turned on his seat to face the piano and, along with the drummer who returned to his drums, watched his group set up The violinist stood from his low chair, showing his extreme height as he placed the padding of the string instrument under his chin and the blonde trumpet player stood up along with him, putting the mouth piece up to his thin lips. There were two other players, but as it seemed, they weren't apart of this particular number.

Resounding taps from the drum gave them the beat.

People quickly stood from their chairs and moved over to the open space in front of the stage.

Manami watched them in amusement as she swayed to the catchy, up beat tone of the music. She would have loved to be able to get up and dance like the couples or dancing companions, but alas, she had always said that she couldn't dance and she also didn't have a partner.

Or so she thought…

"How about it, Mana?" asked a voice from beside her.

She came out of the mesmerizing trance that the people and music had caused her to go into. Her eyes traveled down to the offering that someone was holding out to her and her brain had to take a few moments to process who the hand belonged to.

"No way!" she replied in a sweet "I can't believe you would ask" voice while keeping a playful and friendly smile.

"Aw," moaned Kaku in a "disappointed" tone, "Come on, Manami. It should be entertaining."

"Nuh-uh," she said as a light laugh followed it. Dancing was just something she didn't do. That's what happens when you grow up in a shipyard full of males.

Bending over the counter in front of her, Cody nudged Manami's upper body forward roughly causing her friend to easily slide off of her chair and onto her feet.

"Go on, Mana," Cody pushed while going back to her previous spot, "You should!"

"Nooo!" she protested as she turned on her heel, "I can't dance!"

Cody's hands went to her hips.

"Oh please!" she retorted, "You can too! You have a great sense of rhythm!"

"Not for dancing like that," Manami pointed out, motioning to the duos dancing. It wasn't tango or waltz or something like that, but it was a somewhat formal dance. She went to add something else, but Kaku spoke up.

"It's not as hard as you think, Mana," he told her, "Come on." He reached out, held onto her wrist, and swiftly moved to a spot close to the stage and that had enough room to practice. "Alright now…" He offered out his hand again and smiled at her gently. "Would you like to give it a try?"

Manami hesitated, staring at his hand and debating whether or not to accept it.

"I promise," he reassured, "I'm right here to help."

The young girl looked up at him, then back at his hand, and then back up at him again and she nodded with a smile of defeat. He laughed at her submission and kindly wrapped his fingers around her hand as she set it in the palm of his.

"Good," Kaku praised and he had the both of them stand side by side. He paused as he listened closely to the beat of the drums and the movement of the song and his foot tapped along with it. "Just follow me and relax."

He pulled her along with him slowly, taking the steps one at a time allowing his partner to feel the pulse and become more secure with it all, seeing that he could tell she was very nervous.

"Don't look down," he advised while speeding up his pace and her following his lead very obediently, "It will only make you more likely to screw up."

She nodded, taking his advice and brought her gaze back up to look at him. He gave a cute smile and Kaku swung her out from his side then pulled her back in a twirl to where she would be in front of him and it all continued like that with Kaku and her performing simple dance choreography.

Manami grinned wide as her partner spun her around again on the ball of her foot from under his stretched out arm. She hadn't thought that she would enjoy it this much and as she thought about it, it wasn't really the fact that it was the first time she had danced with someone, other than when she was twelve and danced with Ratchet but he didn't count, it was more about the someone being Kaku. Even though he was an assassin and was said to be a cold blooded killer, Kaku had been incredibly sweet so far.

Suddenly, the next thing she knew was that her vision was now showing she was upside down, there was a feeling of her muscles stressing from being bent backwards over her partners arm, and her ears registered that the music had come to its end. Voices hooted, hollered, and cheered as the crowd of dancers, including them, bowed to the audience, to their counter parts, and then heading back to their seats.

"See?' Cody started in a "Told you so!" manner, "It wasn't hard. And you had fun didn't you?"

Manami let out a heavy breath and leaned on her forearms as she placed them onto the counter top with an expression of acceptance and a slight hint of gratitude that Cody could tell she didn't want to admit playing on her features.

"Yeah," she admitted while sneaking a quick look at Kaku who gulped down about another inch of the sake he had, which he had made last this entire time. She went back to Cody who had an all knowing smirk on her face, making Manami blush along with an embarrassed smile accompanying it. "I did."

"Good!" the bartender squeaked happily and her eyes swiftly rolled to her brother and he took the hint, quickly scurrying to his corner to give the news.

Kaku blinked slowly as his fingers tapped on the solid surface and took another swig of his alcohol while inconspicuously observing the scene with suspicion.

''_They'_ set this whole thing up…" he concluded.

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_I hope that this chapter was entertaining and enjoyable!! It was a little hard to write, but I got it done!! I was thinking that what I had put in was a good idea for it. :D And I should have a lot of writing time these next few days seeing that I have my finals!! But anyways... Please review!! I would love it if you would! It makes me feel seriously good about writing this!_

_-Love Maruri_


	23. Nickname

"Are you sure you have to leave, Mana?" asked one of the young gentlemen who were seated at an oval table playing a card game.

"'Fraid so, boys," she said while laying her cards down on the surface of the table face down as she stood up and straightened up the area around her seat.

I turned slightly on the bar stool as I watched her fix herself up and leaned towards Cody who moved closer to me, understanding the body language, but of course she would.

"Need a tinsy bit more for the stretch home?" she asked with an assuming tone.

She held up the bottle and shook it a little making the sake inside swish around and lightly ram up against the sides. I smiled to her with an expression that confirmed her accusation. It was really no surprise that she knew how to read my or any of her other customers body language, seeing that she was the bartender and I don't know how long her and her brother had been working this establishment, but it had to have been long enough to where they knew their cliental like the back of their hands.

"Well, that's no problem at all," she told me while pouring a small, but perfect amount of the liquid into my glass.

"Thank you immensely, Cody," I thanked while picking the glass up and holding it from the bottom in the palm of my hand. Setting the, amazingly, still cold glass rim on my lips, I dumped every bit of the two inches of fresh alcohol down my throat. "Ahh…" I sighed, letting the very slight soothing sensation of the drink take effect on my muscles.

"As I said, no problem at all," she replied as she returned the bottle to it's holder on the wall.

I nodded back to her and set my empty glass onto the bar, only to have her immediately pick it back up again and insert it into the dishwasher like contraption. As I stood from my seat and Manami joined my side, the twins quickly went to each others side and suddenly fell into their "one mind-two bodies" persona with the both of them forming the same straight facial expression and standing position.

All in all, it really was quite the spectacle.

They advanced towards us in the same way they had when we first arrived. Same exact walk and pace except it was opposite and once they had reached the two of us, they took a stance on either of our sides.

"Please," they spoke while pushing the doors open for us, their voices now back to being monotone and extremely close to the same pitch, "Come back sometime soon and anytime you would like." The two of them bowed making it seem like either one of them were facing a mirror. "We would love to see you more often, Mana."

She laughed at the two of them, in a friendly and flattered way of course, and a smile came onto my face. Everyone on this island seemed to know my partner very well and also enjoy her company.

"And what about my friend here?" Manami asked while motioning to me.

They both smiled small and nodded.

"But of course," they replied with them both standing up straight.

"Good! Good!" she said with a happy tone in her voice.

Manami then looked at me and seemed to be waiting on me to go first, but just because I was a guest didn't mean that I wasn't going to insist that she go before me so I smiled and motioned my head towards the currently very shaded walkway in front of us. Her hands went to her hips and her eyes rolled.

"Fine… Fine…" she held out while trudging out of the doorway and waving to her long time friends, "I'll see you two later, twins!"

"Jana!" they said back in unison and then looked at me. Their eyes gave off an extremely disorientating feeling and I was forced to take in a breath to relieve myself of the sick feeling. "We hope to see you soon as well, Kaku."

My eyes widened slightly at my name being uttered from their mouths. It was the first time that they had actually spoken my name out loud to me. For a while I had thought that they actually didn't know it, but as it would seem, I was mistaken and a grin, along with a laugh, was expressed to them.

"And I hope to be here soon," I said as I bowed gratefully to them. As they did the same, I easily made it to Manami's side and we walked down the sidewalks of the town in silence with me looking ahead and Manami staring straight up at the sky that had quickly been taken over by the deep violet color of night. "Yo, Mana."

She looked over to me and her face sunk suddenly. She knew exactly that I thought walking was taking much too long and, it was in fact. I didn't have a problem with it when there was still daylight, but it was had gotten very dark very fast and in all honesty I wanted to get back to the shipyard soon. She stopped and sighed heavily.

"Alright. Alright, Kaku… I was really hoping to get a break from that, but I guess not…" she mumbled as I halted as well.

A smile appeared on my face as she went to my back side instinctively, and I bent down.

"Thank you very much, Mana-chan" I said back to her, addressing her with a cute little name, while she mounted my back and I immediately took off in a mad dash down the city streets. Every late night person had stopped what they were doing, whether it was closing up their shop or opening their store, to watch me and my companion speed off down the sidewalks and I started to chuckle as I watched Manami out of the corner of my eye look over to the front of my face with an expression that said "Excuse me?"

"Who the hell you callin' 'Mana-chan?'" she asked, imitating the "cutesy" tone I had put with the name.

I couldn't help, but leap to one of the tallest buildings while turning my head sideways to look at her causing her expression to change to one of worry. A sweet and innocent smile appeared on my features as my cap tipped upwards at the right time and to the perfect angle, exposing my entire look.

"You, _Mana-chan_."

* * *

**_DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!_**

_Hello to you all and I apologize so much for the long wait for it!! It just took me forever to get back into my "groove" and thanks to inspiration by reading Anne Rice and starting to write a little bit about that because I got kinda bored in my History class, I got back into my right mind was able to finish up the chapter!! I hope that you all enjoyed it and that it was entertaing. _

_So please, leave me a review!! I would love to see some e-mails in my inbox of one! I always love to see 'em!! And thank you all for the support I'm getting from you all!! It's extremely encouraging to me!!_

_-Love Maruri_


	24. Time for Bed

He lay still on the mattress of his bunk with his eyes shut as Kaku exited out of the bathroom in a muscle shirt and a pair of black knit pants, along with his hat of course, and he didn't move a muscle. Lucci had been like that for about thirty minutes.

Kaku looked about the lightly lit room and stopped as he gazed upon Manami who was, as always, asleep instantly, laying on her stomach, and sprawled out on her bed with her forearm hanging off the side. She always slept that way and it was incredibly funny and cute, but though she might have slept that way, Lucci did not sleep the way he was and he being that way now made it extremely obvious that he was faking.

"Lucci," he started while walking over to his own sleeping quarters, "I know you're not asleep." After he pushed his body up, he plopped down and tilted his head to where he could see his CP9 comrade more clearly to watch if he reacted to it or not. He didn't. "Lucci… Come on. Stop faking."

One of the Neko Neko user's eyes opened up and looked straight at him.

"Ha. I knew it," Kaku said with a small smile as he watched his friend sit up.

As he did, his dark adjusted eyes watched Manami's arm swing from side to side in front of him very closely. He reached up, his hand having a very tense stature as he did, making it seem like he was ready to break the wrist the held the bones together. He had been dealing with this ever since he arrived here and it was incredible that he hadn't done something to remove this minor annoyance before. His fingers wrapped around the appendage completely, holding it firmly in his grasp and his eyes then snapped over to the man lying on his bunk.

"Don't hurt her, Lucci," the Ushi Ushi said to him, being very wary about Lucci's usual method for getting rid of things that irritate him.

The man didn't break his eye contact with him at all as he lifted the young girl's arm up and returned it to the rightful place above her head with barely even lifting up off of the mattress. His facial expression didn't change a bit as he stared at his fellow worker, but Kaku understood what was in that gaze of his very clearly.

"I know, Lucci. I know," he said to him in reply to the gaze. His upper body slumped over in a very sad defeat as he admitted he accepted the inevitable fate that was to come very soon. The day that the three of them would have to leave their jobs here on this island was approaching quickly.

"Then why are you getting so close to her, Kaku?" Lucci asked, his voice gaining a bit of a questioning tone which made him seem very interested in the answer, "You are very well aware that you get any closer and when we leave it will tear her apart."

Kaku nodded. It was all too true, but this incredibly sweet young girl who had a bit of an anger problem was someone he was attracted to. Not to mention, it was quite obvious to him and apparently to everyone else that she was very _fond_ of him as well. He looked back over to her and gazed at her for a few seconds. Imagining her heartbroken was an utterly horrible thought. Her like that was something that shouldn't happen, but there seemed to be no way of avoiding something forming between the two of them, since it had already begun and breaking it when the time came.

"But still, Lucci," Kaku said with a reluctant tone that showed he did not want to accept that fact, "There's no way that I can stop it, and you know that just as well as I."

Being the kind of emotionless man he was, Rob rolled his eyes just slightly as he went back to the mattress below and lay on his left side facing him to the wall. Kaku looked to the floor with Hattori making a white blur go past him and landing on the pillow under Lucci's head. He knew all that was going to have to happen, but he didn't want it to happen the way it played out in his own mind. That was not the "goodbye" he wanted to leave her with in the least.

He sighed heavily, not able to take thinking about this anymore and craving the feeling of the nice, comforting mattress on his bunk, he placed the back of his head softly on the pillow. His eyes started to close while staring at the ceiling above in boredom, making it the last thing he saw before beginning to drift off into sleep, though the sound of Manami shifting in her bed kept him somewhat in consciousness. A very small smile came up onto his features as she let out a large breath in a signal of relaxation.

When they would have to leave was going to be a hard day…

* * *

_I am so sorry that it took this long for me to update this! Holy crap... Oh man... I'm doing my best to update as much as I can and as soon as I can, but I'm losing things that are... inspirations in a way, ya know? Anyways... Hope you enjoyed it~!_

_-Love Maruri_


	25. Breaking it to Ya

"WHAT?" I screamed, my lungs straining from the pitch I had just reached, "WHAAAAAT?"

"Mana. Mana! Calm down, alright?" Ratchet said putting his hands on my shoulders in an attempt to settle my anger down. Worthless attempt if you ask me.

"NO! NO! I will not calm down! Don't you DARE tell me to calm down! This is a freakin' outrage! Why the hell do they have to leave?"

"Mana! Mana, please! We have no say in this. It's all up to their superior. He makes all the rules. We don't have a say in it."

"I get that alright? I understand that, but… but…"

I began to simmer down, but not because anyone wanted me to. Oh no. It was because I needed to find the right way to express my upset. I needed to access the words to accurately tell what I found to be extremely disappointing.

And it took no time at all for me to process my emotions. To find the real culprit of my anger.

The blood within me started boiling again as I looked at the three devil fruit users sitting close to Ratchet's desk. They were who my real beef was with. My eyes narrowed at one in particular. I just couldn't believe he would go along with this…

"But why the Hell can't they say something?" I yelled while pointing an accusing finger at them. "Why can't they tell their boss that they don't want to go?"

"Mana…" Ratchet sighed and sat in his chair, his head shaking. "Have you even asked them if they want to stay?"

My heart wrenched in my chest. No. I hadn't asked them, but… but still! Why wouldn't they want to stay here with people that actually enjoy their company? Here they could actually be themselves instead of completely heartless killing machines. Here they could actually be happy! From what Kaku had told me, he'd never really seen Lucci smile like he was truly feeling happiness. What reason could there be that they would want to return to a life where no one liked them?

So I looked to them. I didn't utter one word, but they knew what I was asking.

None of them said a word to me. Jyabura looked to the floor. Lucci, I didn't expect anything from him. He didn't spark anger in me because honestly he didn't care what happened to him. Then there was Kaku who looked me straight in the eyes and I got my answer.

My heart tightened even more. Teeth grinded against one another.

"Why…" I asked holding back the tears. My nails dug into the palms of my hands as I clenched my fists. "Why…?"

Kaku stood up and held his hands out to me in a gesture to comfort me, "Mana, we can't just go against orders—"

"Shut up," I hissed, my head shaking. Slowly at first I backed up, making my way to the door. "I've… I need to work…!"

Turning fully towards the door I sprinted out heading to the deserted and moonlit ship yard. I needed to work… NOW!

And work I did. Plopping down into the dirt with a hand pushed carving blade in my grip and piece of wood for a ship between my legs, I went straight to stripping away layers of woods. It was the only way I could find to feel better. Tunnel vision made the task of forgetting everything except the task at hand much easier. All I could focus on was where the blade was going.

Though, as focused as I was on the wood, I allowed my mind to drift to a pirate song I had heard earlier that day. It helped a lot to have a beat to go with.

"… binkusu no sake wo, todoke ni yuku yo, umikase kimakase namimakase… shio no mukou de, yuuhi mo sawagu, sora nya wa wo kaku, tori no uta… sayonara mina—"

"Mana-chan, it's not safe to work out in the dark, you know."

Heart froze and my hands shoved the carving knife into wood in front of me. A gigantic splinter then embedded itself into my middle finger. Smooth move on my part.

"Ssssssss!" The air hissed through my teeth. "Damn it…!" I put the finger up to my lips and sucked on the wound a bit.

"Are you alright?" Kaku said coming over to my side and investigating what had just happened. "You didn't seriously injure yourself did you?"

Snapping my eyes over to him, I glared not daggers, but guillotine blades. I rammed my shoulder into his upper chest. He was caught of guard and ended up falling back onto the ground behind him.

"Mana-cha—"

"Don't call me that! And get away from me," I growled as I squeezed around the entry wound making the splinter come up enough to where I could grab it. "I don't need your help. I'm just fine on my own."

I went back to carving and did my best to block him out.

"Manami, listen to me," he pleaded. "I know that you're angry that we're leaving. I get that. I don't want to leave. None of us do, but we can't do anything about it." Something snapped suddenly. "Our director needs us ba—"

"SO WHAT?" I bellowed standing up abruptly. My eyes widened at my outburst. I swallowed the lump that formed deep in my throat. "And it's not just that that's made me so angry, Kaku!"

As he stood up, I held my ground. No matter how much I hated to admit it, he intimidated me. He was frightening in his own right.

"Then what was it that made you so angry, Mana? Let me know."

"I… It's…"

Averting my eyes, I looked to the ocean and stared at the waves. With the tone of voice he gave me, my entire attitude shrunk. I didn't know how to respond to that. Men that I dealt with never expressed any emotion other than rage when it came to stuff like this. Usually we just yelled until someone couldn't take it anymore.

"Mana."

Reluctantly I locked eyes with him only to see an expression of genuine sincerity. He somehow knew just what to do to rip my temper in tiny pieces, but that's all that I needed to get even more bent out of shape. Because I couldn't hate him and I knew he was right fueled my anger right back to where it was.

"Please, Mana. What is it that's made you so angry? Tell me. Help me understand."

My chest was set on fire, my face contorted, and my muscles tensed with rage.

Pushing him away as violently as I could, which wasn't very violent since I couldn't bring myself to hurt him in anyway, I screamed. A few tears of frustration trailed down my cheeks when I turned my back on him.

"Don't pull on my heart like that! Don't play it! Just… Just get away from me! I need to think…! And I can't do that if you're here! So leave me alone!"

I heard a sigh leave his mouth and the sound of his shirt following the motion of him nodding his head.

"Alright," he said in a low whisper. "But when you want to inform me on what's bothering you, come wake me up."

The sound of his shoes kicking up dust reached my ears and I went back to my position with the wood. Water streamed very lightly down my cheeks as I picked up my carving knife. I went back to taking off layers of the wood

As I heard the door to the main building close I did my best to return to my earlier demeanor.

"… _sniff_… sayonara… _sniff_… minato… tsumigi no… _sniff_… sato yo…"

* * *

_Whoo~! I'm back! Don't know for how long, but CHA! Finally wrote another chapter! FINA-FREAKIN'-LLY~! Not as long as I would have liked it, but hey. It's good to be back, guys. Late night inspiration is a wonderful thing. As well as a bit of boredom mixed into that. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Leave me some feedback~! _

_Love all of you that have supported and encouraged me to get back on the horse!_

_-With much love,_

_Maru-chan_


	26. Answers

"_The real lover is the man who can thrill you by kissing your forehead."_

_- Marilyn Monroe_

* * *

Peaking in through the door, her eyes traveled around the room. Lucci was asleep in the usual fashion: on his back with arms crossed over his abs. And from where she was standing Kaku was out like a light as well. His back faced her direction, but his entire body said that deep sleep claimed him. That was good news for her.

_"…when you want to inform me on what's bothering you, come wake me up…"_

Shaking her head, Mana threw the words out of her mind. One, her body was tired; she worked out the thoughts in her head for a good six hours by herself. Two, she wasn't going to be rude and wake up him up from a comfortable slumber. Though she wouldn't admit it, not wanting to talk to him was the third reason.

Unbeknownst to Mana though, Kaku's eyes peeled open the moment he heard the door click shut quietly. He was very happy that she had returned to their room. In the back of his mind, the seed of doubt that planted itself shriveled up. A smile crawled on his face and he closed his eyes to keep up the façade that he slept peacefully.

"Ahhh… Guess I'll take a quick shower and then go straight to bed," she whispered to herself as she walked toward the bathroom silently.

And a quick shower it was. To wash the oil that had coated her hair that day and scrub away the sweat and dirt on her only took a few minutes. Seven minutes to be exact. One of her fastest times ever. She probably would have been faster if her body wasn't so exhausted, but like that even mattered to her at that moment. Of course it did… subconsciously.

She scrubbed her wet hair as hard as she could while walking out of the bathroom, being careful not to let the light from the bathroom shine in Kaku's face. Her hair always seemed to soak up water like a sponge. Such an annoying trait she acquired.

That aside, she readied herself to leap up onto her bunk after throwing the now very damp towel towards the makeshift laundry hamper.

"So…" Mana froze in her spot in front of the bunk bed her and Lucci shared. He spoke in a very quiet voice, hoping that it wouldn't infuriate Lucci. It was obvious he woke too when she entered. "There anything you want to tell me? Or talk to me about, Mana?"

"N… No." she replied in the same hushed tone. She mentally slapped the Hell out of herself. Why couldn't she just act like she didn't hear him and go on? Because, for some horrible reason, deep, deep, DEEP down she wanted to tell him what was bothering her.

"Oh…" he muttered, letting the syllable hang in the air awkwardly for a few seconds. "Are you lying to me, Mana?"

She didn't answer him. Her mind raced for an answer to give him, but only the obvious one came up.

"Why don't you want us to leave?"

"Be… Because… I like you three and that's all there is to it," she confessed without really thinking about it.

"Well, there's one question answered," Kaku said.

Then there was the sound of cloth sliding down sheets and the carpenter's presence was right behind her. A smile of amusement fought hard to stretch Manami's lips seeing as though she could clearly see Kaku's nose out of her peripheral vision without having to strain.

"But there's one other thing bothering me, Mana… Why are you so angry with me?"

Her lips shifted to the side in an attempt to keep them from blabbing anything that she hadn't sorted through.

"Kaku… It's all because…" Biting her bottom lip quick, she spun around to face him. It took all she had to keep her voice low. "I don't want you to leave. I've been having a lot of fun with you three here! It's been a while since I've had this much fun…" She hated sounding like… like… such a girl. "And I didn't want you to go…"

"_'You'_ as in Lucci, Jyabura, and me?" Kaku asked.

Mana gave a large sigh while looking down at, not her feet, but his. "No. _'You'_ as in you, you dim bulb. I—" She immediately cut herself off. Her eyes widened. "I… I mean..! It's just…!"

Red flushed her cheeks and she rapidly clawed at her head for her lack of cautiousness. How could she be such an idiot to let those words slip? Suddenly she looked up at the Ushi Ushi user with an irrational glare.

"Dammit Kaku!" she cursed with a whisper, her brow furrowing in upset. "I hate it… I hate how you do that…! Why do you play with me like that? You make me say things that I don't mean to let out… to anyone!"

Once again, her eyes fell to the floor and she let out a huff of anger. Kaku's lips spread in a smile that the young lady couldn't see. He knew. He already knew why of course, but he wanted to hear it come from her. It was different to know it and to hear it.

Neither of them moved from their positions though. They waited for the other to make the next move.

"What?" Mana snapped sharply. "Go back to your bed. It's over there. Mine is right behind me."

Kaku chuckled lightly at Mana's misdirected anger. It was cute. Adorable in fact and no one else, but him could possibly be able to keep a level head when she got like this. Actually, no one else seemed to infuriate her like he could. It's what kept this relationship interesting.

"What?" she repeated in a more threatening manner with her voice still low. "You got the answer you wanted didn't you?"

Swift. Slightly chapped. Heart stopped. Legally dead for a good second.

And just as quick as they had landed on her forehead, they left. She was left standing there dumbfounded as the CP9 member stood up straight with a smile.

"Yes. I did," he answered. Jumping back onto his own bed and laying down, he propped himself up on his side to where he could face her. "And I do believe you got yours."

All she could do was take in a deep breath, turn away from him, and crawl into her own bed. Making her back face him, she stared at the wall. Thoughts raced through her head, but they just kept going back to that, replaying it slowly over and over again. Her hands gripped the comforter around her tight, pulling it in closer.

"Sleep well, Mana-chan," he said before turning over in his own bed.

A grin all her own crept onto her face as she snuggled her comforter slight.

* * *

_Well, if you didn't notice, the quote at the beginning actually kinda inspired what happened in this chapter. Love that quote. A whole freakin' lot. Oh MAN! This is totally making me feel better. What a good stress reliever. Packing for college and choir camp is really freaking me out. :D_

_I love you all for all of the support! I can't express that enough!_

_-With MUCH love,_

_Maru-chan_


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